Legends of the Inklings
by KitkattAttack
Summary: Marin "Marlin" Colorian hoped when he had made it to Inkopolis to play turf wars that a level of normalcy he could handle had finally come to him...until he dropped though a certain sewer grate and found out that the Great Zapfish was stolen by an old foe of the Inklings known as the Octarians (prologue to Secrets of the Inklings.)
1. The Day Before

_Author's notes: This story was already in planning about halfway through part one of Secrets of the Inklings for multiple reasons. One being because I had always wanted to do an origins story for how Marlin ended up becoming Agent 3._

 _This will however be far shorter then Secrets of the Inklings or the upcoming sequel (which except for the few people who know about the sequel already is still mostly under wraps.) Also because my main focus is still primarily on Secrets of the Inklings updates might be far apart from each other for this one._

 _Also there will be major spoilers to the single player mode in this story so if you do not wish to have it spoiled well...you have been warned. (Course I have quite a few spoilers in the other one...)_

 _With that I hope will you enjoy._

 **Chapter 1: The Day Before**

I knew I should have listen to what my head was trying to tell me as I looked down the grassy hill I was on to where a small rickety ramp stood at the bottom of the hill. Many of those thoughts including, " _you could seriously get hurt from this...maybe even kill yourself,_ " and, " _mom is so going to splat you when she finds out what you did today,_ " but I shoved them all aside as I prepared to do what was probably my most stupidest stunt I had ever pulled off up to that point in my life.

Or at least I tried to push the thoughts away.

I turned my head to look over at my best friend Whark, who had been my friend since we were little squids. Unlike me, who was still a orange colored semi-humanoid looking being, he had already aquired his full Inkling humanoid form since he had turned 14 less than a week ago. His skin was dark brown while his eyes and tentacles were teal with almost green colored tips, "Are you sure about this dude?"

"Of course I'm sure Marin," he responded as he flashed me a fanged grin, "my older bother showed me this and now I'm showing you. Come on, I'm your best friend, what do you take me for?"

"Alright..." swallowing nervously I climbed onto the skateboard that Whark had grabbed from his older brother and stood on it with my wobbly half formed legs, "...here goes nothing..."

Whark held two thumbs up at me as the board slowly slid down the hill and picked up speed in a matter of seconds as it raced down and towards the wooden ramp.

"Turn into a squid Marin!" Whark shouted down at me through cupped hands.

Nodding at him I concentrated for a moment until I could feel the normal sensation of my body shifting into my squid form as I fell forward to flop onto the skateboard and gripped the sides with my tentacles. Seconds later the board rode up the ramp and flew up into the air.

"Let go Marin!"

I did. As the skateboard started to fall back down to the ground I kept flying forward. Twisting in the air I shifted back into my semi-humanoid form and held my orange pudgy arms out to my sides as I closed my eyes and allowed the air to whip past my face.

"Marin! Look out!"

"What?" opening my eyes again I quickly realized my ascent had ended and my descent was quickly taking me back down to the ground...or at least that was what it looked like until I saw where I would end up.

"Oh no...are you squid-" I never got to finish what I was saying since it was then that I had barreled straight into the back of a medium blue colored Inkling, causing both of us to roll several times before flopping onto the pavement.

"Oww..." I partially moaned as I slowly sat up and rubbed my head, "that hurt."

"No joke you pudgy orange klutz!"

I looked over at the person I had fallen onto and immediately wished I hadn't.

The girl glared at me with her medium blue eyes as she picked herself up from off the ground, "What on Terra were you doing idiot?!"

"I was...uh...I was just..."

She rolled her eyes at me, "great...he has trouble speaking as well as is an idiot."

"I-I'm not an idiot!" I was finally able to sputter out but it did nothing to make her think otherwise.

"Whatever squib..."

I winced, being called a "squib" was just as bad as being called an idiot but it also was used to lable Turf War players who was just starting out...like I would be once I turned 14 the next day...

"Soral!" I turned just in time to see Whark run up to me partially breathless from the run down the hill, "hey...long time no se-"

"So this is your friend Whark?!" the girl snapped, "he just about killed me!"

"I did not!" I insisted but she wasn't even looking at me now.

"Sorry Soral...I just was trying to show him what super jumping is like and well...I had to get creative with it."

"I'm sure you did," she sniffed. brushing off the bright yellow shirt she was wearing she gave me another glare, "if we meet in Turf Wars stay out of my way squib!" she then stomped off down the street.

Neither of us spoke until she was out of sight and once she was Whark let out a low whistle, "you seriously didn't do much to get on her bad side Marin did you?"

"It was your idea!"

"Yeah...but you were supposed to be ready to land."

"How was I supposed to know that? I've never super jumped before!"

"Well you'll be doing a lot more super jumping shortly so you'll need to be ready for that," looking over his shoulder he saw that the sun was going to be dipping below the horizon in the not to distant future, "should probably get going. I'm sure your mom is probably wondering where you are."

"I very much doubt that Whark," I sighed as I held out my semi-humanoid hand which mostly looked like a orange tentacle with smaller appendages sticking out of the end, "you want to hang out tomorrow before you head out for Inkopolis?"

"I'm hoping you will be coming with me dude," he replied as he shook my hand, "your birthday is tomorrow right?"

I nodded, "Yeah but what if I ha-"

"What? Transformation Pains? Aw come on Marin you're not that worried about that are you?"

"No...I suppose not..." Transformation Pains occurred sometimes when an Inkling first turns 14 which makes changing between their humanoid and squid form difficult the first few days but that admittedly wasn't what was bothering me.

"See you later Marin," he started to run down the block to his house.

"Bye Whark!" I shouted causing my voice to squeak a little. It had been doing it a lot lately and I was hoping it would stop once I turned 14. I continued to watch him until he had walked up to his porch and into his house.

Sighing slightly I turned around to head towards my own house.

* * *

Taking a peek into the kitchen I tried to be as quiet as I slipped into the room and tried to make a beeline for the stairs.

Tried being the key term...

"Marlin!" a semi shrill voice cried out before the owner rammed into me and gave me a hug, "I missed you big bro!"

"Hello Kell," I rubbed the top of his head as he stared up me with his bright lime green eyes, "you know you really need to stop calling me 'Marlin' it isn't how you say my name."

"But Marlin is your name like my name is Kelp," the 11 year old insisted. His ability to talk being made difficult by a slur he had currently.

I shook my head, "Never mind Kell," I looked around the corner into the living room to see that no one was in there, "where's mom?"

"She went into her room," Kell answered as he slightly frowned, "she went in there five hours ago..."

"I see..." I looked up the stairs to where I knew her room was before looking back down at him, "you must be pretty hungry then?"

Kell rapidly shook his head as a small bit of drool fell out of the corner of his mouth, "yes big bro."

I couldn't help but smile at him as I grabbed a stool and used it to reach the upper cabinets.

After about 20 minutes I had created a meal of pasta and shrimp from a box and stuck two plates onto the table. As soon as the plate had touched the table my brother had immediately started to devour it like a pack of piranhas would devour a injured sea creature. After about three minutes of non-stop eating he finally looked up at me with a slightly worried look, "what about mom?"

"Don't worry Kell...I'll go check on her," pulling out a third plate I filled it with some of the pasta dish and with a glass of water. Placing them on a tray I started my journey up the stairs to my mother's room.

I paused briefly just as I got in front of the door and took a deep breath before knocking.

"Yes?" A voice behind it asked. It sounded partially scratchy and worn as if the owner had been crying for hours which knowing who it was I was pretty sure that was exactly what had happened.

"It's me mother," I cried through the door, "I brought you some food."

"Oh...come in then."

Turning the knob I slid into the room as I braced myself for what I was about to see.

My mother was sitting on the edge of the bed which was completely messed like she had just climbed out from under the sheets and various empty boxes littered the floor which I knew had been there for a good few weeks. On the bedside table was a small stack of dishes from the last several days which thankfully were only dirty. A few months ago it had been a hassle to get her even to eat because she had fallen into her depression again.

"Here you go mom," I gently placed the tray next to her on the bed and stood there waiting for her to eat.

"Thank you Marin," she said as she grabbed a fork and took a bite of the pasta, "it's nice...did you make it?"

"Well sort of...I mostly followed the instructions on the box..."

"Ah," the corners of her mouth curled slightly into a hint of a smile before reverting back to their standard position as she went back to putting food into her mouth in a very mechanical manner.

"Mom...do you know what day it is tomorrow?" I finally dared to ask her after several minutes of silence.

She groaned, "Oh please don't tell me one of the bills is due is it?"

I winced, "No mom...it isn't a bill."

"Well then Marin what is it? You know I don't like guessing games, besides I would think you would be too old for something that a child plays."

"I, uh...never mind..."

"Alright then Marin. You can go now," she handed the plate back to me as I grabbed the stack on the side table to take it downstairs to get washed, "and once you are done with your chores you better hurry off to bed."

"Yes mom," was all I said before walking out of the room and shutting the door behind myself.

"So how is mom Marlin?"

I choked back a sob that threatened to escape before I answered him, "She's okay Kell, you don't have to worry yourself out."

"Okay...hey big bro?"

"Hm?" I turned back to him once I had placed the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, "what is it Kell?"

"When did you get taller?"

"Taller?"

"Yeah than me."

"Kell I've always been taller than you."

"But you're even more so Marlin."

"What?" even as I said it I suddenly saw what he meant. Before I had only been about two or three inches taller than him but now I nearly was at least half a foot taller than him.

"Hm...my body must be getting ready for me to be able turn into my humanoid form..." I looked at the tentacle that was my right arm and I wasn't quite sure if the fingers had actually start defining themselves or if I was simply imagining it.

"Are you excited big bro?"

I lowered my tentacle arm and smiled at him, "Of course Kell...why wouldn't I?"

"Because you will be going to somewhere you've never been and you might get scared."

"Are you worried I might get scared going to Inkopolis?" I asked him.

The lime green Inkling nodded as fear entered into his eyes.

"Aww Kell, you don't have to worry about me I'll have my best friend Whark Kelpore with me so I won't get scared."

"You sure?"

"Totally now let's get to bed so we can have a good night's sleep, okay?"

"Okay Marlin," hopping down from his seat he followed me as I headed back up the stairs and to the door that was the farthest down the hall which was Kell's bedroom.

"I don't need help getting into bed. I can do it by myself!" He cried out before blocking my path to his room.

I looked at him, "You sure Kell? I can totally..."

"No, I'm good," he said in rapid succession as he slipped into his room and shut the door before I could even get another word out.

"Okay Kell..." I quietly whispered at the door before turning to heading into my own room. A small bit of sadness tugging at my hearts as I went and fought the urge to cry at the unfairness of my life.

No kid should have to live without their father but I had since I was two because someone with a knife had stabbed him in the back one night. It was also about around the same time my baby brother was born as well as a baby sister that died as well. My mom had said it was because she was very weak when she hatched and simply didn't make it. I never even got a chance to see her...

By the time I had opened the door exhaustion had finally caught up to me and it took all my effort to drag myself to my bed and flop onto it with a long yawn.

"Wow...I didn't think I would be this tired..." shifting into my squid form I sighed in a high pitched squeak as my eyelids steadily grew heavier and heavier until I had fallen asleep.


	2. I'm a Kid Now

_Author's notes: it's nice to know that you guys are already liking this one as much as SOTI...that just gives me more courage to keep writing this..._

 _Your reviews are always welcomed as well as any questions you might have for the story. I'd also be willing to answer any questions on my Tumblr page if you would prefer. My ask box is always open._

 _As always enjoy..._

 **Chapter 2: I'm a Kid Now**

"Big bro? Big bro!?"

"Wha...? Ack!" the sudden wake up call from my brother was pretty normal to me but the unexplained fear behind the words wrenched me from sleep so suddenly I didn't even realize how close I was to the edge of my bed until I had gone down. In a matter of seconds I had gone from sleeping gently in my bed to ending up on the floor in a tangle of blankets and bedsheets.

"Ugh! Kell what is it?!" I shouted as I tried to crawl out from the mess. Normally it should have been easy since I could have just slithered out in my squid form but for some reason it wasn't.

It was then that it slowly dawned on me that I had been able to speak to Kell, something I would have never been able to do in squid form, "Wait...why on Terra am I in my semi-humanoid form? I've never changed into it in my sleep before..." I muttered to myself as I finally pulled myself from the fabric cocoon I had inadvertently formed around me.

I looked up from the floor to see Kell and my mother looking down at me as they stood in the doorway to my room, "What? What did I do now?" I asked, getting a little irritated at the rude awakening by this point since it was clear my brother didn't need anything from me.

For some reason my brother immediately thought what I had said was very funny and went into a laughing fit for several minutes. My mom, on the other hand, looked on the verge of being either overjoyed or terrified.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing is wrong Marin," Mom quickly insisted as tears suddenly welled at the corners of her eyes, "it's just...it can't believe how much you look like him..."

"Him?" There was only one person my mom ever referred to as 'him' and he had died long ago. I immediately looked down at myself.

My skin no longer was orange but had a skin tone only a slightly darker shade than my mom's and my tentacle limbs had formed into slightly skinny arms and legs. Looking out of the corners of my eyes I could see my two main tentacles hanging at the sides of my head and they were swaying slightly as I moved my head.

"I...I'm a..."

"You're a kid now big bro!" Kell joyfully cried out before going into another giggling fit.

Warmth rose to my cheeks as I felt myself blush. Thankfully for me most Inklings wear black shorts as soon as they can shift even partially out of their squid form. From the waist up however I had nothing, my simple hair band for keeping my tentacles up was also gone most likely due to it being snapped off when my tentacles had grown.

Blushing even more I quickly grabbed the blankets and wrapped myself with them, "um...mom...do you have any...?"

"Uh, yes of course..." backing out of the room for a few minutes she arrived with a bag which she handed to me albeit somewhat hesitantly, "we'll uh...be downstairs when you are ready Marin," dragging my brother out of the room she shut the door behind her.

As soon as I was alone I threw my blankets back onto my bed before walking over to a full length mirror on my closet door to get a good look at myself.

My face was probably the part that surprised me the most. The black markings around my bright orange eyes against my definitely somewhat pale face wasn't what I had expected. If I hadn't known better I would have almost thought my eyes had flashed briefly as I had stared into the mirror. I didn't have my mom's freckles but I was almost certain I probably did look a lot like Dad when he was my age; a slight shiver ran down my back at the thought.

"Well Marin...you certainly look interesting," I told myself before holding open my mouth slightly to see that I had two very sharp fangs nestled between a row of flat teeth on my upper jaw and the same thing on the bottom except with a single fang, "yep...definitely interesting..." pulling stuff out of the bag mom had given me I started to get dressed.

The clothing included a yellow shirt with black lettering, cream colored shoes, black shorts with a color changing band and a gray and white headband that awkwardly refused to fit properly on my head until I realized why, "oh yeah..."

Blushing faintly I looked into the bag to see a brightly colored elastic band with the colors red, yellow and green alternating in the weaving of it. walking over to the mirror again I reached for my tentacles with one hand while I held the camo band in the other as I pulled them back to the top of my head and tied them up into a simple ponytail.

It was only then that I realized the tips of them showed signs of being yellow or even gold colored. A color I must have inherited from my dad since my mom's tentacle tips were dark lime green.

"Well I guess that answers that question," flashing a nervous grin at myself in the mirror I turned to leave my room.

Walking around thankfully wasn't too hard since I had mostly learned how to walk on two legs years ago but that unfortunately didn't stop me from stumbling on the bottom steps on the stairs and nearly face planting into the floor.

Kell busted out laughing as I grabbed the wood railing to keep from actually successfully tasting the carpet. Once I was certain I was steady I walked over to the table and sat down while Kell continued to laugh, "You know you'll be dealing with the same thing in little over two years Kell!" I snapped at him which immediately caused him to fall silent.

"Marin! That is no way to talk to your brother!"

"Says the mom who barely cares about what her kids think," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that Marin?"

"I said 'yes mom I'll try not to talk to him like that from now on'," I quickly lied, although I was half tempted to say the truth to her. The fact that she was actually acting like a normal mom instead of her normal self started to make me mad. Why now was she trying act like this when she hadn't for years?

"Good. Now that you're 14 Marin what...?"

"I'm going to Inkopolis to play Turf Wars," I said, cutting her off.

"You don't want to stay here Marin?"

"Why on Terra would I want to stay here?" I demanded, my voice started to rise in volume as I spoke as well as my anger.

"Marin I'm not sure I like the tone you're using."

"Oh really? That's a surprise..."

"Marin?! That is no way to talk to your mother."

"When was the last time you have even acted like our mother?! Half the time you were moping around in your room while I had to take care of my brother!" I was shouting by this point but I didn't care anymore.

"Marin...why are yo-"

"I'm not done Mom!" I said as I cut her off again, "I'm sick and tired of having to do everything around here while you cry about Dad and I am not gonna be forced to stay here forever!"

My mom simply stood there in a half daze as I yelled so when I had fallen silent she didn't speak. The quiet in the room became so thick I almost felt like it was choking me slowly as I stayed in the house.

It was all too much for me. I had to get out of there.

Without saying another word I rushed back up the stairs and into my room. Pulling a backpack out of my closet I started to fill it with various items and stuffed a wallet into my short's pocket. Currently it had nothing in it but something told me I was going to need it later.

Once I was certain that I had everything I slipped downstairs as quietly as possible and headed for the front door, avoiding the kitchen so that I didn't have to confront my mom again.

"Marlin?"

I cringed inwardly as I slowly turned around to find Kell on the verge of tears, "Please don't go big bro."

"Oh Kell..." I partially kneeled down and put my hands on his shoulders as I looked right into his eyes and he mine, "look, I know this may be hard but I need you to be here for mom and help her out when she needs it. If you can stay strong for two more years until you turn 14 you can come live with me in Inkopolis."

"Really?" he sniffled a little bit, "You would let me live with you?"

"Of course, you're my brother and brothers need to help each other out," pulling him into a hug I then whispered, "hang in there Kell...you're almost free too..."

"Okay," we both pulled away from each other, "I hope you will be happy in Inkopolis Marlin."

"Yeah...me too," standing back up I took one last glance at him as I slipped through the door before I started running to the train station.

* * *

As I wandered the train station platform with my ticket in my hand I kept looking around for a certain face that didn't seem to be there. My heart sinking lower by the second as I debated whether I had miss the person I was looking for.

"Holy calamari! It can't be...Marin?"

"Wha...?" I started to turn around only to nearly fall backwards onto the wooden planks of the platform as a pink feamale Inkling with very pale skin crashed into me before pulling me into a tight hug.

"It really is you!" she let go of me as she looked me up and down, "and your humanoid form turned out pretty great."

"Alga...why?" I finally was able to ask her since she had nearly forced out all the air in my lungs, "...why on Terra are you so hyper?"

She simply shrugged, "beats me. I've always been like this...you remember that don't you?"

"How could I forget," I muttered to myself so that she wouldn't hear me. Having known Alga as long as I had known Whark I knew that she was acting a lot less hyper and energetic than she normally was. The hug, frankly, could have been a lot worse and in the past it had been.

"So are you heading for Inkopolis?"

"Yeah, you too?"

"Of course, not only for the games but also for all the cute boys..." she let out a airy sigh as she looked up into the sky at the thought, "...so many cute boys indeed..."

I rolled my eyes at her as I let out a short snort, "You know they probably won't notice you because you are only a Noob."

"One could still hope Marin," she insisted.

I couldn't help but shake my head at her as I turned around to suddenly find Whark right in my face.

"Holy mackerel! Dude, don't sneak up behind me like that!" I jumped back a good pace or two from him.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," he said as he flashed his classic grin at me before i was once again scrutinized from head to toe. Once he was done he let out a low whistle in awe, "you look pretty awesome Marin...and your tips are gold huh? You don't see gold tips very often."

"I guess so," I answered as I self-consciously reached up to lightly tug on one of them.

"Well at least they're not green. No offense but I'm not sure orange and green would suit you dude."

"Hey it might have been cute Whark, you can't just say it wouldn't suit him!" Alga said as she started to stroke one of her own tentacles which were almost red at the tips.

"Well if you like it so much dye your tentacles that color."

"Whark you know I can't change my tips green otherwise I might just do that."

"Ugh!" he covered his face with his hands as he shook his head, "I was being sarcastic Alga!"

"Oh," she frowned, "how was I supposed to know you were being sarcastic?"

Before he could answer the loud whistle from the train reached our ears as it came into the station. Dozens of Inklings walked off of it as we and several other young Inklings got onto it.

"You ready for this guys?" Whark asked as they found a seat next to one of the windows.

"I sure hope so," I answered as the train started to pull out of the station, "because honestly I'm not sure I want to find out what will happen if I come back here."


	3. Welcome to Inkopolis

_Author's notes: hello everybody! I hope you guys all had a good Christmas and will have a great New Years. I might also get another chapter of this and SOTI up before I go back to school but no garantees..._

 _Reviews and questions are alway welcome and I hope you will enjoy..._

 **Chapter 3: Welcome to Inkopolis**

I watched countless fields and trees pass by the window while Whark and Alga continued to talk to each other about their various plans for what to do when they would first arrive in Inkopolis. I was only half listening at the time as several thoughts swirled around my head. Some of them exciting like theirs, others filled with dread at what the repercussions of I had done earlier that day would be.

"Hey Squibs! Move it, this is our spot!"

I looked up to see two 15 year old Inkling girls, one yellow green tips while the other was periwinkle with pink tips. The yellow one was the one who had spoken and she didn't particularly look happy.

"Are you talking to us?"

"Of course Orange Head! You're the only Squibs in this car!" she barked at me.

"You can't go around calling people 'Squibs'," Whark quickly stated.

"Why not? It's not like I know your names," she smirked.

"Well mine is Whark Kelpore and this is Alga Anemia and Marin Colorian," Whark introduced each of us one at a time.

"Wait..." she pointed at me with a look of disbelief, "his name is Marin Colorian?"

"Yes that's my name," I answered her as I stood up from my seat, "is there a problem with that?"

"Oh no there's not..." a mischievous grin formed on her face, "unless...you mind having a girl's name."

"What?!" I nearly fell backwards back into my seat before I had regain my composure, "Marin is not a girl's name."

"Really?" she turned to face the periwinkle girl, "Because I could of sworn Shill that you had an aunt named Marin..."

"My name isn't a girl's name!"

"Nope I don't Yang," the girl named Shill answered, "but you know what name is very similar to Marin?"

"No, what?" Yang giggled.

"Maria!"

"My name is definitely not Maria!" I continued to insist since I didn't know what else to say to the girls. The wrong choice of words would probably have had them on me quicker then a tiger shark to an injured fish leaving a blood trail behind itself.

"You're right Shill, Maria would be a lot better than Marin," the pair of them continued to giggled at their idea.

"Hey that's enough you two!" putting a hand on each of the girl's shoulder a red orange colored Inkling boy drew their attention, "Yang I'm sure you and Shill can find another place to sit."

She immediately glared at him, "You can't protect all the Squibs Zack!" Yang cried at him angrily before stomping off with Shill following closely behind her.

The boy stared off at the two girls for moment sadly before looking back at us, "Sorry about that, my sister can be a bit rude to new Turf War players."

"That was your sister?" Alga asked.

"Yep," he pointed at his own tentacles which were slightly green at the tips, "my name is Zackerel Shrimizu but most just call me Zack. Yang is my clutch sibling but I hatched two weeks before she did which makes me technically the older sibling."

"Whark Kelpore," Whark said as he shook Zack's hand, "the pink one is Alga Anemia and I'm sure you heard my other friend's name from your sister."

"Yeah I did," he frowned, "sorry about that dude."

"It's alright Zack," I said as I shook his hand as well, "how come though everyone calls you Zack instead of Zackerel?"

"Mostly it's due to people not being able to say my name fast enough before me or they got splatted. It's not uncommon for people to use nicknames instead of their real names in Turf Wars."

"Really?"

"Yeah its pretty normal and I hate to say this but if what just happened happens a lot you might want to come up with a nickname for yourself."

"I've never had that issue back home but I'll keep that in mind," I said just as the speaker overhead announced that we were at the Shoreview stop and the next one was to be Inkopolis.

"Well I wish you luck on your first day," he replied before yelling into the next car, "Yang! Our stop is here! We need to get off!"

"I'm coming, sheesh!" running through the car Yang gave another sly smile to me as she pasted, "see you later...Maria," she giggled once before hopping off the train with her brother seconds before it started to move again.

I clenched my fists as soon as she was out of sight.

"Don't let her get the better of you Marin," Whark insisted as he placed a hand on my shoulder before pulling me back into my seat.

"I'm trying not to, but maybe Zack and his sister has a point about my name...if people are going to take me seriously I can't have them laughing at me...especially if it's because my name sounds like a girl's name."

"Marin you're over exaggerating the situation," Alga said as she sat down opposite of me and Whark, "all that matters is how well you do in the games. Actions speak louder than words after all."

"I suppose so," said as I gave her a small smile, "I'll keep that in mind."

"Great, because we're here!"

Looking out the window I saw quickly that she was right. A large metropolitan city sprung up into view right before my eyes. Several tall towers reaching up to the sky and one in particular stood out from the rest in the distance.

With a jerk the train stopped in the station and the three of us quickly got up and walked to the closest door. With a short hop down we landed on the wooden platform.

"We're here guys," Whark grinned as he looked around, "Inkopolis; the place where Inklings come to chill like krill."

I rolled my eyes at him, "You just wanted a reason to say that."

"Perhaps, but I have been here before with my family so I know where everything is."

"Well then Mr. Tourguide why don't you lead the way."

He flashed his fangs at me again, "Sure thing Marin," leading us out of the train station he stood in front of us in a very professional manner and cleared his throat before he spoke, "as you know currently we are standing in what is called the Plaza where Inklings come to meet and chat with other Inklings. To my right is the Booyah base where you can get the freshest gear but I've heard the owners can be a snobbish bunch and probably won't let us buy anything from their shops if they don't think we're fresh enough."

"So you say," Alga said, not very impressed by Whark's act.

"I'm serious Alga, my brother told me when he first came here he got mouth-off by a clownfish."

"Whatever."

Whark rolled his eyes at her, "Well anyway up in that building to my left is a battle dojo that will allow you to practice with a friend and behind me is the famous Inkopolis Tow-" he froze as he turned around and looked up at the tall building, "...what? Where did it go?"

"Where did what go?" I asked him as I peered up at the tower, "is something missing?"

"How is that possible...?" suddenly he rushed toward to the center of the plaza, dodging past various Inklings and Jellyfish beings.

"Whark?!" Alga yelled at the teal Inkling before chasing after him. I ran after the two of them but was immediately stopped by the crowd that had suddenly gathered to look up at a screen high up on one of the buildings as a tinkling jingle played from it seconds before two older Inklings, one black with a black and pink dress and another almost white in color that wore green and black, showed up on the screen. Both must have been related to each other because they both had the same gold colored eyes.

"Hold on to your tentacles..." the black Inkling started with a wide grin.

"...It's Inkopolis news time." the almost white one added, albeit with a hint of boredom behind it like she said it one too many times that day.

"Today in the map rotation we have Blackbelly Skatepark and Urchin Underpass for regular battles," the black one started with a couple of random comments from the other one. Both of which had started to make me cringe. The black one seemed too hyper for a 17 year old and the sarcastic tone of the other one made it seem like she would rather be doing anything other than explaining which areas had Turf Wars currently.

"Alright that's all for now so-" the black Inkling started to say before she was suddenly handed a piece of paper, "what is this...?" she asked puzzled, as she read it however her eyes grew wide before she yelled at the top of her lungs, "News Flash! News Flash!"

"What is it Callie?" the other Inkling asked.

"The Great Zapfish has vanished!" the one called Callie cried out.

"Oh, yeah that is quite interesting Callie bu..." the off white Inkling started to say before the other one's words had finally sunk in, "Wait...seriously?!"

"Yeah, Marie. Apparently at some point early this morning it vanished from off the tower and hasn't been seen since..."

"Oh dear..." the off white Inkling, Marie, said. She actually seemed to be getting worried by the news as well.

"You don't think we'll lose power, do you Marie?"

"I'm sure we'll be fine...probably..." she tried to comfort Callie with but she didn't seem that certain of it herself.

"I wonder if it has anything to do with that UFO sighting from earlier."

"It likely could be..." Marie half mumbled under her breath.

An off screen voice barked out and brought the two girls back into focus, "Well that's all for now. Until next time..." Callie started.

"Stay Fresh!" they both cried out before striking a pose that included them throwing their hands into the air as they balenced on one foot.

I snorted at the silliness of it as I turned only to run right into another Inkling.

"I'm really sorry about that sir," I quickly apologized to the Inkling as he straightened his faded blue hat which was covered in patches. The rest of his clothes wasn't really in any better condition than the hat since most of it looked like patchwork of rags that prominently showed off his thin frame. A white beard covered most of his face and what colored Inkling he was wasn't possible to tell anymore since most of the color had faded from his two tentacles that stuck out of the top of the cap.

"Nobody has called me 'sir' since the Great Turf War bucko," the elderly Inkling commented before looking me up and down very throughly, "hmm...an orange Inkling...don't see many of those nowadays...let alone one with golden tips..."

I swallowed nervously as the Inkling I had run into scrutinized me farther, "Why does it matter if I have golden tips sir?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On you bucko," he answered as he looked at me directly in the eye.

"What?"

"Marin!"

I turned to find Alga coming towards me with Whark right behind her, "We've been looking all over for you," she cried out somewhat irritated.

"Really?"

"Yeah, after the announcement ended Whark and I realized you weren't with us anymore. So we came looking for you."

"Sorry but I ran into..." I started to say as I turned around back around find that it was just us three standing in the middle of the plaza, "huh? Where did the creepy old dude go?"

"Creepy old dude?" Alga asked puzzled, "Marin what are you talking about?"

"But he was right here only a second ago."

"You were by yourself when we walked up," Whark insisted, "there was no one else here."

"What?" I looked around the area to try to see if the older Inkling had simply shambled off but all I could see was young Inklings around my age. It was almost like he had simply vanished into thin air right in front of me.

"I, uh...never mind," I sighed, "I guess I must of imagined him...but he seemed really interested in the fact that I was an orange Inkling with golden tips..."

"Even if he was real Marin he probably was just surprised to see one. Orange Inklings are pretty rare after all," Whark pointed out.

"I suppose." I admitted. It was something I never fully understood. Why of all colors that Inklings came in did it have to be the orange colored Inklings that were pretty much extinct? The color never really seemed that special to me...

"Hey didn't we come here to have fun guys?" Alga asked as she wrapped her arms around mine and Whark's shoulders.

"Yes we did," Whark answered her.

"Well then let's go have fun guys!" she cried out as she started to drag the two of us towards Inkopolis tower, "but first things first...we need to get our ID cards."


	4. Necessary Changes

_Author's notes: Well I was right about not getting this chapter up before school started up for me again... (-sighs-) okay let's just get this over with._

 _Next chapter will probably be for SOTI and then probably another chapter LOTI...or at least that is my plan...tentatively speaking..._

 _Reviews are greatly appreciated as well as any questions you have._

 _And with that enjoy..._

 **Chapter 4: Necessary Changes**

"Oh my cod Alga...you don't have to drag us all the way into the lobby! We do have legs you know!" Whark grunted as he struggled to get out of her grasp.

"Fine Whark," she sighed as she let him and me go.

Stumbling for a few seconds I quickly regained my balance but Whark wasn't so lucky. Windmilling his arms for a few seconds he wasn't fast enough to stop himself from landing face first into one of the pillars supporting the entrance to the tower. A long drawn out moan from him confirmed that his pride was more damaged by it than his body. Pulling away from it however he quickly had to cup his hand over his nose as it started to trickle dark red almost black blood.

"Carp dude, that doesn't look good," I said before wincing at him as he pinched his nose to prevent more blood from coming out of it, "you better get that dealt with."

"Ngyes, I probably shnould," he exclaimed in a nasally tone before turning to Alga, "you mind helping a poor squid out?"

"Of course Whark," she cried out on the brink of tears, "it was my fault you got hurt."

"Naww...Alga..." he groaned and sadly I had to agree. Alga was a lot like a light switch sometimes. In a matter of seconds she could go from being her normal hyper self to crying faintly pink colored tears if she or someone else was hurt either physically or emotionally. Only on a few occasions had I seen anything else other than those two emotions but that didn't mean I like seeing her sad. In fact it almost reminded me of some nights where I had to comfort my little brother Kell...

I shook my head to get rid of the thought, "You want me to come with you two?" I asked.

Nah, Marin...we shnould be good," Whark insisted as he waved me towards the lobby entrance, "how abount you go get your Turf War ID while we are gone."

"Okay...meet you in there I guess?"

"Snounds good."

"Alright, see you later."

"Sname," he grunted as Alga started to drag him off.

With a sigh I turned around and walked up the steps to walk into the lobby.

The lobby appeared to be in utter chaos as Inklings ranging from 14 to possibly 18 as well as their weapons wandered around the front waiting room. Some appeared to be in teams already while others looked like they were waiting for one or more players to join them. A couple of adult Inklings kept an eye around the whole area as the young Inklings continued to mill about.

Walking up to the front desk I looked over it at the lavender colored secretary Inkling which currently had her nose in a book and headphones in her ears. Most likely to drown out the loud noise of the waiting room but it forced me to have to wave my arms at her to get her attention, "Um...excuse me ma'am but I'm here to get my Turf War ID card."

"An ID card huh? Well then you need to head down that hallway to the right to go get one made for you," she answered me in a slightly irritated tone before returning to her book.

Heading down the hallway she had mentioned I ended up in another waiting room which currently had nobody else there other then a pine green Inkling behind the giant desk.

"Oh hello young one...you here to get an TWID?"

"Twit?" I said confused.

No sooner had the word escaped my mouth the pine green Inkling had to fight back laughter for several minutes before he could speak again, "It's alright kid, you're not the first one to say that," the Inkling chuckled again, "TWID is an anagram for Turf War Identification Card. In order to play in Turf Wars you need one which will include your level of skill, your ranking in rank battles as well as some basic information about you. Any other questions?"

"What are ranked battles...I don't think I've heard of those..." I asked.

"Ranked battles are highly competitive matches usually between two Splatoon teams, however unless you get special permission players are not allowed to participate in ranked battles until they reach level ten in skill level. For now you're stuck with regular Turf War."

"Oh...okay uh..."

"Call me Mr. Squier, most people do. Now let's get your TWID card made," swiveling his chair towards a computer he grinned down at me, "so I do need some information from you in order to make the card though."

"Uh...o-okay," I stammered out.

Mr. Squier chuckled again, "Relax kid let's just first get your birth ink color. I think it's safe to say it's orange...right?"

"Yes," I answered him, "but my tips are gold."

"Alright," he tapped away on the keyboard for a few seconds before looking at me again, "date of birth?"

"May 29th."

"Okay..." he looked at the screen again one more time, "...alright the last thing I need is your name kid."

"It's Mar-" I started to say when I stopped myself mid-syllable. An all too recent memory coming to mind of a certain yellow Inkling and her vicious taunts as I stood there and once again dread of hearing even more such taunts filled me and almost threatened to choke me until I suddenly remembered the conversation with Zack I'd had...

" _It's not uncommon for people to use nicknames instead of their real names in Turf Wars._ "

Suddenly an idea came to me, one I wasn't sure would work but it wouldn't hurt to try...

"Hey kid...you okay?"

"Huh?" I quickly shook my head as I realized I must have zoned out for a moment, "I'm sorry about that...I tend to do that sometimes," I explained to him.

"Oh...well okay but I still ne-"

"Marlin Colorian."

"What? Marlin, like as in the type of fish?" he asked puzzled.

"Uh...yes."

He raised an eyebrow at me, "That's not you're real name, is it?"

My mild boost of confidence instantly turned to formless ink as I felt the color draining from my face. I swallowed nervously before answering, "No sir...it's not."

"...you don't like your real name kid?"

"Not really," I admitted. It kinda felt bad saying it out loud but as I thought more about it even before the incident I had felt slightly unhappy with it which was probably why I was okay most of the time with Kell calling me Marlin. The childish nickname slowly growing on me as the years went by.

"I see..." after looking between me and the computer screen for several minutes he suddenly tapped a few keys before getting up from his seat, "wait here. I'll be right back," he said before slipping through a door behind his desk. Having nothing else really to do I took a seat in one of the chairs and waited worryingly for Mr. Squier to come back. The fact that he had seemed slightly worried as he left only seemed to make me more anxious as I fidgeted constantly in my seat.

Several minutes later the pine green Inkling came back with his hands in his pockets. He looked pretty upset about something, "So kid...you do realize there will be consequences for what you've done."

I looked down at my hands, not daring to look at him directly, "yes sir...I know."

"Good," with a sigh he pulled something out of one of his pockets, "then I better give you this," he held out his closed hand to me before opening his fingers as he held it close enough to my face that I could see it.

It was a plastic card that was pale blue in color and had my information on it that I had given him...including the name "Marlin Colorian".

I quickly looked up at him in disbelief, "Is this for real?"

"Yep, that's your TWID card kid."

"So...I'm not in trouble?" I asked him, still puzzled by the sudden turn of events.

"Well technically speaking you're not supposed to have falsified information on them but you seem like a nice kid...Marlin," he gave me a quick wink before sitting back in his chair, "now don't you have some Turf Wars to go get ready for?"

"I oh...yes Mr. Squier. Thank you Mr. Squier," I quickly got up from my seat.

"No problem kid," he smiled as I rushed down the hall to the main lobby. A wide grin spreading across my face as I restrained myself from screaming for joy and making a scene right there in the hallway.

By the time I had returned to the lobby Alga and Whark were just coming in with Whark having a tissue up one nostril while the entire area around his nose was turning purplish in color, "Hey Marin you have your ID already?"

"I uh...yeah I do," I said as I quickly shoved it into the pocket of my shorts before pointing down the left hallway, "you get them down that hall."

"Nice, okay we'll meet you outside so we can get our equipment all at the same time and get straight to playing."

"Yeah...sure thing," walking out of the lobby doors I leaned up against a blue metal stand in front of the tower before letting out a big sigh as the energy drained out of me and left me as weak kneed as a young squirt still learning how to toddle on two semi-formed legs, "oh...what have I done?" I mumbled to myself as I leaned more of my weight on the stand.

"Excuse me squid...but I would pre-fur you didn't lean on my spot."

"Huh?" looking down I nearly jumped several feet in the air at the sight of the strange creature before me. It was black and white in coloration and had bright yellow eyes that were currently staring at me, "oh I'm sorry, uh...?"

"Judd," Judd answered, "and be-fur you ask what kind of creature I am I am what is called a cat," it lifted up one of its front feet and started to lick it with mild intent.

"O-oh..." I stuttered, still shocked to see such a strange creature since I never had before in my life, "so what do yo-"

"I'm the game keeper and judge of Turf Wars," he answered once he had stopped licking his front foot, "in other words...you'll be seeing me a lot once you start playing which I can tell you haven't with that paw-sitively claw-ful level you have."

"Really?" I looked down at myself, wondering if it was really that obvious.

"Your ID card is sticking out of your pocket," he answered as he pointed to it.

"Oh..." I quickly slipped it in deeper.

"So...Marrrlin is it?" he climbed up onto the stand, which had a cushion on it to sleep on, "I hope you do a good job in Turf Wars."

"Um...thank you Judd," I replied just as a thought occurred to me, "hey Judd you seem to know a lot of things about Inkopolis...right?"

"Yes I do."

"Then...can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," he answered without blinking an eye.

"What's a zapfish?"

"A zapfish me-now that's an interesting creature. A zapfish is a special type of fish that produces electricity in its body. The largest and oldest one called the Great Zapfish used to reside curled up on this tower until early this morning."

"What happened to it?" I asked.

"Hey man, you ready?"

Turning back to the lobby I quickly spotted Whark and Alga hopped down the steps. Alga even more so, "hey Mar-"

"Yeah I am," I quickly answered before she could get the rest of her question out. If she had and with the fact that Judd thought my name is Marlin it would definitely have revealed what Mr. Squier had done and thus let the cat out of the bag for both of us...literally.

"Oh well...okay then let's go get our equipment," Whark said albeit somewhat puzzled by my reaction of their arrival as we walked away from the lobby and across the plaza to the shopping area. We were about halfway there when he spoke again, "say Marin...what was up with that anyway? you've never cut off Alga like that before."

"I'm sorry about that guys but I didn't want to confuse the cat..." I told him, hoping he wouldn't pursue the topic farther.

Sadly that wasn't the case as he suddenly stopped walking which caused Alga to run into him with a faint squeak as he stared me. His teal gaze seemed as hard as stone as he did so, "What do you mean by confusing Judd?"

"It's kinda complicated Whark," I admitted to him as he continued to stare me down, "I'm not sure you'd understand."

"Try me Marin," he half growled at me, his gaze turning colder, "just try me..."

Me and Whark had been friends as long as I could remember and in all those years he always seemed to know when I was keeping a secret from him. So the fact that he was giving me the cold treatment that he was currently sadly didn't surprise me, but didn't make me feel any better about the situation.

I sighed, "I changed my name to Marlin Colorian."

"What? How?" Alga squeaked in shock as her voice rose several octaves. Whark's glare had also turned to one of shock.

"I told Mr. Squier that my first name is Marlin and he put it on my card," pulling the card out I showed them the different name.

"Oh my squid Marin..." Whark groaned as he shook his head in disbelief, "you do realize you could get busted for this right?"

"Yeah I do," I slipped the card back into my pocket, "which is why I'm gonna need your help."

"How so?"

"I need you to stop calling me 'Marin' and start calling me 'Marlin'."

"What, why?"

"So that people will believe that it is my real name. If you don't they might get my card examine and find out what happened," I quickly explained but left out the part with Mr. Squier. It didn't seem right to get him involved as well, especially since he had probably been the nicest adult I had met in a while.

The pair of them continued to stare at me for several minutes before Whark sighed, "okay dude...we'll help you."

"Really?"

"Of course," Alga said with a smile, "we're your friends and we'll stand by you through anything that comes our way. Besides...Marlin isn't that bad of a name actually."

"You think so?"

"Yeah," Whark nodded, "Marlin is pretty cool sounding."

"Thanks Whark," I sighed in relief, "I really needed to hear that."

"Hey, what are friends for...Marlin," placing an arm around my shoulder the dark skinned teal Inkling had returned to his normal self as the three of us walked towards Booyah Base.

"Now the shop we're looking is called 'Ammo Knights'. The shopkeeper won't let us purchase any of his weapons until we're skill level 2 but he's required to supply us with basic equipment that all players start with in Turf Wars," he walked towards the door for 'Ammo Knights' which automatically slid open, "then we'll just head down to the practice area a-"

"You snooty shelled crab! How dare you deny me the ability to buy something!"

"I'm sorry miss Soral Oceano but you clearly aren't a high enough leveled player to use..."

"Codswallop you shrimp sized crustacean! You just don't want me to improve!"

Walking into the shop the three of us quickly realized what was going on. The medium blue Inkling girl that I had crashed into the day before was currently shouting down at a humanoid horseshoe crab that was bravely standing his ground but was clearly frightened by the girl's firey anger. He constantly rubbed his hands together as he spoke, "Soral you must be at least skill level twenty before I can allow you access to the Gold Dynamo Roller and currently you are only level 16 and thus I can't trust you with such a weapon."

"You know I'm more then capable to weld the Gold Dynamo Roller Sheldon," she growled at him causing the horseshoe crab to wince, "now go get my Roller you shelled squib!"

"That's no way to treat someone!" I suddenly blurted out as I walked farther into the shop, Whark and Alga following me with mild panic.

She whipped around to glare at me, "Who the shell are you?!"

"My name is Marlin Colorian, we met yesterday."

She stared at me for a few seconds puzzled before her eyes suddenly widened, "You...you're the orange squib who crashed into me yesterday!" she clenched her fists, "you are so dead!" she immediately lunged at me.

I ducked under her grasping arms and ran towards the horseshoe crab Sheldon as two other girls in the shop held her from taking another pass at me, "I wasn't trying to crash into on purpose Soral!"

"Bullcarp you walking clownfish!" she nearly screamed as she struggled to get free of the other girls, "you know very well that you did!"

"Soral this is ridiculous," the dark blue inkling girl on Soral's right declared.

"Case is right Soral. A level 1 nobody is not worth getting into a fight with," the royal blue Inkling on the left added in.

"Perhaps you're right Azuse," Soral finally calmed down after another minute and the two girls let her go, "but maybe the squib should think more carefully before messing with the Turf War queen!"

"You? Turf War queen?" Whark snorted, "you can't be serious. You only started a month ago Soral there's no way you're that good."

"Oh really Whark?" she walked up to him until she was only an inch away from his face, "well perhaps we prove that for certain."

"What do you have in mind?" I asked her.

She turned to face me, a mischievous grin on her face like what Whark often had but for some reason seeing it on her caused a shiver to run down my spine, "how about a little bit of competition."

"Such as?"

"How about a Turf War."

"That's not happening," Whark quickly responded.

"And why not Whark? Too sea chicken to fight me and my team?"

"Wha...?" he took a step back, "no I'm not!"

"Then prove it by playing a match against me and my team."

"We can't do that...Marlin tell her that," Whark said as he turned towards me.

Soral and the other two girls behind her also turned to look at me, "Yeah Marlin...tell me that you, your cowardly friend and crybaby girlfriend are too chicken to try to fight my team. Don't worry we'll try not to laugh too hard when you do."

I'm not sure exactly which part of what she had said had caused my anger to boil over but I wasn't going to let her get away with what she had said, "You're on Soral!"

"Marlin?!"

"Great..." the grin from earlier returned, "how about four hours from now?"

"Sounds good," I half growled. I was half tempted to show my fangs as well but stopped myself at the last second since flashing my fangs would probably make me look stupid.

"Marlin?!"

"Good. See you then...Marlin," she turned to head out the shop's door but stopped just in front of it, "and just so it's fair and square you better start looking for a fourth player as soon as possible," with at she left as I stood continued to stand there was my anger disappaited into nothing.

Less then two hours had past and I had already made an enemy.


	5. Trials of Errors

_Author's notes: I really do feel bad about the long breaks between chapters but I should get a few out in the next couple of weeks since I'm out of school for now._

 _Don't forget to leave reviews at the end or any questions you have for me._

 _With that enjoy!_

 **Chapter 5: Trials of Errors**

"Marlin?!" the repeated use of my new name finally clicked into recognition just as Whark grabbed my shoulders and threatened to slam me up against the shop's counter, "what on Terra were you thinking?"

"I..." I started to say before I stopped, realizing the truth of how I let my anger get the best of me would only make him more mad, "I'm sorry Whark..."

"Oh you're definitely going to be sorry alright after Soral's turns us into fried calamari later!" his fangs made an audible click against his other teeth as he restrained himself from growling right in my face.

"Well maybe we'll win Whark, you never know."

He raised his head up to laughed at the ceiling before pushing on my shoulders again with his fingers almost feeling like claws digging into my skin, "Yeah right Marlin, like a bunch of noobs like us are going to beat a team that has at least several months of experience in turf war and rank under their belts."

"You may not be totally in trouble young squids."

"Huh?" looking over Whark's shoulder I could barely see the short horseshoe crab shopkeeper watching the three of us, "oh...sorry about causing a ruckus in your shop."

"It's fine, you're not the first team to do it and I doubt you will be the last one either."

"But we aren't a team Mr. Sheldon," Alga pointed, "we only have three players, not four."

"Well that's what I was saying before. If you can find the right fourth player you might stand a chance against the Inter-tidal Tsunami Splatoon."

"Inter-tidal Tsunami...Splatoon?" I asked.

"That's probably the name of the team Soral and those other two girls belong to Marlin," Whark explained, "most professional teams have a team name but I guess junior league does it too."

"Yep they do!" Sheldon said just as something caught his eye that was behind us, "Oh! Good morning Noi!"

"Noi?" prying myself free from Whark's grasp I turned around and end up nearly nose to nose with a female Inkling. If we were any closer I could have kissed her without much effort...not that I wanted to though...

I immediately jumped backwards, "Oh my cod! I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were there," I could feel my cheeks burning as I continued to speak really quickly while my voice partially squeaked at the same time. Behind me I could hear Whark trying not to laugh at my flustered reaction.

"No its fine," she answered. I may have imagined it but I could have sworn I heard a faint accent in her voice as she spoke, "I really should've announced my presence sooner. You wouldn't be the first I've accidentally snuck up on."

"O-oh..." I stammered out as I looked at her in more detail. She was a Lilac, almost lavender, colored Inkling with purple tips and skin so pale it almost looked like she had never sat in the sun. Her eye color strongly reminded me of a type of precious stone I've heard of. What was the name of it again...? Amathyst? Amithyst...?

"Amethyst!" I suddenly cried out before immediately covering my mouth with my hands and turning an even brighter red than was before.

"Oh, that's...a very pretty name but not mine if you were guessing," she stated as I turned even more red, "as Sheldon just said my name is Noi...Noi Humloche to be precise," she frowned at me, "are you normally this flustered around girls?"

"I uh...no..." I shook my head as I tried to get a grip on my emotions, "One of my best friends is a girl."

"A girlfriend?" a playful grin crept onto her face.

"Yea- I mean...no, she's not my girlfriend!"

She snorted in laughter for a few seconds before she could stop herself, "relax...I was just messing with you uh...?"

"Marlin, Marlin Colorian," the burning of my cheeks had finally started dissipated after several minutes.

"Marlin huh?" She looked over my shoulder at Alga and Whark, "what about your two friends?"

"Whark Kelpore and Alga Anemia."

"Nice to meet you..." she then glanced at my shirt before frowning again, "you three just arrived here huh?"

"Yeah...but this dude decided to pick a fight with the Inter-tidal Tsunami Splatoon captain," Whark grumbled from behind me, making me cringe.

"Soral Oceano?" Noi raised an eyebrow at us, "last I checked she was a B+ player...what made you pick a fight with her?"

"I wasn't trying to pick a fight wi-" I tried to explain before she held up a finger at me as she shook her head.

"No...now that I think about it I don't want to know what you did to put her tentacles into knots but whatever it was by the sounds of it you three are in trouble because of it."

"No squidding," Whark remarked, "and now we have to find a fourth player before this afternoon!"

"Yikes..." she winced before turning towards Sheldon, "I came in for replacement burst bombs...I'm almost out."

"Sure thing Noi," the horseshoe crab slipped into the back as she turned back to face me.

"So...you need a fourth player huh?"

"Yeah," I answered.

"And you don't know anyone who could be your fourth player?"

"No...I don't."

"Well..." she hesitated a moment for first time since she came into the shop, "...can I help?"

"What?!" I took a step back, "w-why?"

"Because you look like you could use it," she answered as Sheldon came back with a bag which she slipped into a bag on her shoulder, "besides I'm not that far ahead of you. I only started two weeks ago and only just hit C+."

"Bu-"

"Marlin..." she leaned up to me which caused me to feel very warm again, "...please...let me help you."

"Uh...sure?" the question was more for me than her since the words had tumbled out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying.

"Oh, Marlin..." groaning Whark placed his face in his hands as he shook his head at me.

"Cool, I'll give you some pointers before the match. Meet me at the practice arena in ten minutes," with a grin she turned around and headed out the doors. A mixture of confusion, and worry swirling around in my head in the wake of her absence as I tried to piece together what had just happened in the last ten minutes of my life.

In the end I wasn't sure if what I'd done was a good thing or not.

* * *

"We are so dead," Whark muttered as he clutched his gun tightly while we waited for an opening in the matches.

"Don't say that Whark or we will be," Alga told him as Noi paced back and forth in front of them while I leaned up against the wall on my side since I already had my ink tank strapped to my back. It was currently empty since the valve connecting my tank to the needle inserted into my ink sac was shut to prevent orange ink from being siphoned into the tank.

"Well...I hope we win..." looking up I could see Soral glaring at me for the umpteenth time since we had arrived there as she rubbed the handle of her dynamo roller. The two girls, Azuse and Case, sat patiently next to her while a yellow colored male inkling who I didn't have a chance to catch his name yet looked bored out of his mind while slumped up against the wall.

"Inter-tidal Tsunami and the Tiger Sharks Splatoons?" A lime green official asked as he came out from behind the counter.

"The Tiger Sharks Splatoon is here," Noi declared. Being the oldest and the most experienced of the four it didn't take much to decided that she would become the captain for the team.

"Same with the Inter-tidal Tsunami," Soral barked sharply as she and her other three teammates stood up. She then turned her gaze sharply at Noi, "and for the record if you think we'll be easy on you you're greatly mistaken."

"We never thought you would," Noi flatly stated as she stared the medium blue Inkling down. Soral in response opened her mouth slightly, showing the tips of her fangs in a half snarl.

Suddenly I wasn't so sure that it was just Noi being kind that caused her to help us out. The full reason though I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"Alright..." if the official saw the two captain's glare match he sure didn't show it, "Tiger Sharks will be team orange for this match while Inter-tidal Tsunami is team blue due to one player with minor color blindness."

"Who...?" I started to ask.

"It's Azuse who's colorblind Marlin. She can't really see greens and yellows that well," Noi answered me before I could finish. How she would know something like that of another Inkling I wasn't sure...unless...

"Teams must now head to their designated respawn points to begin the match," the official told us, causing me to break out of my thoughts. Pointing down a hall he urged us to start walking down it.

"Alright! Let's do this!" the yellow Inkling cried out as he pumped his fist in the air.

"Can it Neel!" Soral immediately snapped at him, "remember what I told you earlier?"

"Yeah...don't get cocky and only cheer when we win..." he grumbled as he lowered his hand and slumped his shoulders down. Even his bright yellow eyes seemed to lose their brilliance as he walked forward towards his team's own spawn point as we headed towards ours when the path split.

Reaching our own spawn points I looked down to see it was already filled with orange colored ink underneath the metal grate. Switching our ink tank's valves on so ink could start filling our ink tanks we each turned into a squid and slipped into the ink underneath our feet.

Rising up from the ink several minutes later I shook myself off as I looked around the area we were in. The area seemed to be near the seaside as I continued to take in my surroundings. Seagulls would fly overhead or call at us angrily from perches of shipping containers and the like and the smell saltwater drifting up from foamy water below us.

"Saltspray Rig?" Noi raised an eyebrow, mildy confused as she continued to look around at where we were, "I was almost certain we would get Walleye Warehouse..."

"Is this bad?" Alga asked her.

"No...but we do have to worry about falling in the water..."

I Shuddered at the thought as mental images of me simply haphazardly falling off the edge came to mind. Our ancient ancestors may have once swam in these waters back when the Landdwellers still walked the land but that knowledge seemed to have all but disappeared after our people came onto land. Any Inkling who fell in the water would after several minutes drown before dissolving into ink. As long as there was a respawn point close enough they would simply come back but if they were too far away from one or if the respawn quit working they wouldn't and would remain dead...permanently.

"Just stick to the plan and we should be fine," Noi insisted as a loud whistle suddenly sounded and we took off to accomplish our individual part in the plan.

Covering the ground as I went I constantly kept glancing around for team blue. Because this was only our first match Noi had suggested we try to avoid fights against them, for which I had no problem following that suggestion but it didn't stop me from feeling like I was being watched.

Trying to avoid drawing any attention I headed towards the lesser noticed large area that was smaller than the other major area but so far appeared untouched except for a corner which had a splatter of blue ink. Working my way around I made it over to the blue splatter last so I could quickly head back out of there afterwards.

I only saw a ripple of movement only a second before Soral lunged out of the blue puddle with her roller held above her head, "Nice try Squib!" slamming her roller down a wave of blue hit me before I could react and everything turned black.

Clutching my stomach slightly I fought the urge to gag as my body reformed back at the spawn point. The vertigo wasn't something I had expected to experience so I was caught completely off guard as I fought back the bile that threatened to climb up my throat.

Seconds later Alga respawned as well but nearly ended up on her knees in the process, "Holy Carp..."

"Yeah...I wasn't expecting it either," I replied as I swallowed one final time and stood up straight once I was certain I wasn't going to puke, "come on...Whark and Noi can't take the other team on by themselves," shifting into my squid form like Noi had showed me and the other two I built up ink pressure in my ink sac for a few seconds until I couldn't hold it any longer and released it as I flew upwards from the pressure.

Twisting through the air I held my hands out like wings as I shifted back into humanoid form. Letting the cool air rushing past my face calm me down slighly for a few seconds I opened my eyes to see where I was landing.

Immediately I wished I hadn't as I saw who was about to splat me once I landed...again.

"Hello again Squib!" Soral cried out with an mischievous grin just as I landed on my feet in front of her. Her roller coming towards me was all I saw before I blacked out again for a few seconds until I could respawn.

It didn't take me much to figure out that Soral was purposely targeting me during the match. Every twenty seconds or so I would find myself reeling at the spawn point after having been splatted by her. By the end I didn't feel like puking anymore bur had started to lose count of how many times she had taken me out, but the repeated splatting was starting to take it's toll on me by the last half minute as I tried to cover a little bit more turf before time ran out.

"Mari-I mean Marlin! She's coming!" I heard Alga scream from somewhere on my right which was followed by a shriek of fear before the sound of exploding ink reached my ears.

"Augh! Again?!" turning my head I quickly spotted a ripple coming towards me very quickly. Returning my focus to where I was going I put a boost of speed into my steps in a vain hope of escaping the blue squids grasp.

My forward momentum quickly ended up a faceplant into blue ink as something slammed into my back and pinned me into the ground. My ear faintly started to tickled as a voice whispered into my ear, "You thought you could get away huh Squib?"

I tried to squirm out of her grasp but she only pushed me farther into the ink which was starting to burn against my skin.

"You want to know something?" she continued to whisper into my ear, "when you spoke before I really was kinda worried about how well you'd do but now I see that I was greatly mistaken to think you had any skills! You're nothing but a weak limbed orange Squib that doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut!" she finally let me go only to slam her roller onto my back just as the whistle went off to end the match.

As I respawned again Soral's words repeatedly stabbed me in the chest like sharp knife running me through. She was right, I was a terrible player and I did have a nasty tendency to say stuff before thinking about the consequences. It was the same reason behind me chewing my mom out before I came to Inkopolis which made me feel even worse as guilt threatened to swallow me up again like it had then.

Ending up back at the lobby seconds before the others due to me respawning I ran towards the front doors of the lobby. Tears threatening to well up in my eyes as I fought the crowd as well as fought the darkening thoughts running through my mind.

"Marlin, come back!" I couldn't tell who it was that called me but I didn't dare stop to find out as I pushed through the doors and headed down the front steps. Taking a sharp left I started to head towards one of the alleyways that led away from the main plaza in the hopes of finding somewhere I could be alone.

In my blinded rushing I didn't see the raised sewer grate I was going towards until my shoe had caught on the edge and I started to fall forward.

"Oh carp!" by instinct I shifted into squid form only to realize seconds later that it had been a bad idea.

With a frightened squeak I was helpless to stop myself from sliding between the bars and down into the darkness of the sewer pipe.

I had no idea how long or how far I fell before I finally stopped with a pained squeak but I was too overjoyed to stop falling to care about it. The feeling was short lived though as I tilted my triangular head upwards and realized I couldn't see the light from the grate I fell through. Going back, at least for now, didn't seem an option to me.

Whimpering a little like a young squirt I quickly started to move forward as I dodged sharp glass and metal that threatened to cut my soft body. Based on the way it looked the sewer hadn't actually been used for actual sewage for a long time which only gave me a small bit of comfort about the situation.

Turning a corner I suddenly spotted pale light filtering down in a column in front of me from another grate above.

With a squeal of joy I rushed towards it and reaching up to it with my tentacles I pulled myself up and slipped up through the bars before shifting into my humanoid form to prevent myself from falling back down it.

I kneeled there on top of the grate for several minutes as my entire body shook from the experience, "never again...I'm never going down into that creepy place again!"

"If that's the case then how are you going to get back Bucko?"

I looked up to find the old man from before staring at me from only an inch away from my face.


	6. The Captain's Plea

_Author's Notes: Hey guys I'm back and hopefully I'll be on a little less of a hiatus kind of mode now due to me having more time to potentially write. So hopefully there will be more regular updates of both this one and SOTI._

 _Anyway, don't forget to review at the end of the chapter, I really appreciate them._

 _Enjoy._

 **Chapter 6: The Captain's Plea**

"Holy ship!" I fell backwards as I tried to back away from the old Inkling as quickly as possible only to end up backing into a tree, "oh my cod, I'm so sorry! I didn't know anyone lived down here!"

"Relax Bucko, I'm not going to get you in trouble if that's what you're wondering," the elder Inkling insisted as he waved his arms for me to calm down. If it wasn't covered by his scraggly white beard I probably would have seen his mouth curl into a smile when he said it though.

I stared hesitantly at him for a moment, "You won't?"

"Of course not Bucko," he looked me up and down for a bit, "you can't be much younger than my own granddaughters by the looks of it actually..."

"Oh...r-really," if this elder squid had granddaughters I would have hated to be in their shoes. By the looks of it he didn't eat as much as he should since you could see his entire frame and at first glance he might have looked a little senile to some people. Keeping an eye on this elder probably wasn't easy for them...assuming they even knew he was down here... "w-well I really am not that old sir..."

"How old are you then Bucko?"

"14 sir and actually my name is Marlin, Marlin Colorian," getting up from the ground I realized he wasn't that much taller than me since he was leaning very heavily on a cane he was holding in his right hand.

"Marlin huh..." he stroked his beard thoughtfully for a moment as he looked me up and down some more, "that look in your eye...it's a look I haven't seen in a long time..." he half muttered under his breath as he continued to look at me.

"What look in my eye sir?" I couldn't stop myself from asking him.

"That look of someone with a great deal of courage," he answered, "you actually might be just what I'm looking for..."

"What do you mean?"

"What do you know about the Great Zapfish Marlin?"

"The Great Zapfish?" the sudden change of topic caused me to have to quickly wrecked my brain for information as I tried to remember as much as I could it, "um...a big electric catfish that wraps around Inkopolis tower and gives Inkopolis a lot of its energy, also recently it went missing."

"All true statements...except it didn't go missing...it was stolen."

"S-stolen?" I took a step back only to once again thump my back into the tree behind me, "stolen by who?"

"Only one group would be so desperate to take away our limited source of power..." turning his gaze to an old shed behind us he groaned, "sadly I wish I was wrong about it though..."

Following his gaze I realized attached to the wall was an assortment of objects. Some of it was random newspaper clippings, others were various camera pictures and others still were pieces of paper with words or pictures rapidly scrawled onto it before they were tacked up with the rest of the stuff, "what is all this?"

"This is all my research on the oldest of our race's enemies...the Octarians."

"Octarians?"

"Yes Bucko," he finally looked away from the wall, "like our ancestors the Octarians origins is in the sea. While we evolved from squid the Octarians evolved from another sea creature known as the octopus."

"How come I've never heard of them?"

"Because adults don't want to scare young squirts such as yourself Marlin. A long time ago our two races were at peace but no longer and now our two races are bitter rivals."

"Why is-"

"It doesn't matter..." he answered, cutting my question off, "what does is the Octarians have taken the Great Zapfish."

"But...how you be so certain it was them though?"

"I've been keeping an eye on them for a long time but somehow they slipped away with it right from under my nose. While looking for some clues I found small traces of a type of ink only they produce and because it's so unique to them if a Inkling touches it it will burn an Inkling's skin...accidental consumption of the stuff can be fatal even. After discovering it I was making my way back here when you ran into me earlier."

My eyes widened, "So it was you!"

He nodded, "Yes it was me...normally I really don't travel too much aboveground but in order to figure out if it really was the Octarians I had to take the risk."

"Why is the Great Zapfish such a big deal anyway?"

"Because if we don't have it Inkopolis will lose all its power. Not right away but it will happen eventually...those so called Turf Wars of yours will become very dangerous without any way to respawn after being splatted.

I shuddered at the thought of never being able to respawn because the respawn points suddenly lost power, "What can be done to get it back?"

He placed a hand on my shoulder, "Well Bucko...that's where you come in. I need you to help me get the Great Zapfish back."

"What?! M-me?" I pulled away from him as I tried not to completely freak out, "s-sir, I'm just a kid and you make these Octarians sound pretty dangerous."

"They are, and I would do it myself but I'm getting old Bucko..." he sighed heavily, "I can't even really produce ink anymore..."

"Surely there is someone else who can..."

"Marlin, I've been looking for quite some time for someone to help me and frankly you aren't the first young squid to accidentally fall down here, all of them missing something that would be crucial to be of any use to me. When you ran into me earlier I knew you'd be just right to help me and you falling down here I don't think was a mere coincidence."

"But...I can't sir..." I shook my head rapidly as tears threatened to well up at the corners of my eyes, "I'm sorry...but you must have the wrong person...I can't help you..." I turned to go back to the sewer grate to leave.

"Wait!" even though he was old he still was somehow able to get in front of me to block my path before I could get away, "alright I understand, if you don't want to but even if you won't help me could you at least help me with something else?"

I sighed sadly, "yes...sir?"

"When the Great Zapfish was stolen several dozen baby Zapfish went missing as well. I recently found out where one of the little ones are but I don't have anyway to get it...if you could just rescue it that would help me a lot with finding the others. What do you say?"

He stared at me hopefully as I debated what to do. After several minutes of thinking I sighed again, "just the one baby Zapfish...right?"

"Yes...and then you're done. Sound fair?"

"Will I have to fight any Octarians?"

"This baby Zapfish isn't really guarded so you'll probably be able to sneak it out of there pretty easily."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

I hesitated another several seconds, "Okay...I'll do it sir."

"Oh thank the starfish young lad!" he made a move to hug me but stopped when I took a step back from him, "err, right...actually Bucko I'd prefer you not to call me 'sir'...it makes me feel older than I already am. Call me Cap'n Cuttlefish or just Captain if you don't mind?"

"Oh...okay Captain," I nodded, "in that case could you please not call me 'Bucko' anymore? I'd prefer you call me 'Marlin'."

"Sure, but I can't use you real name out in the field...how about I call you Agent 3 instead?"

"Agent 3? Are you saying...?"

"Yes...you aren't my first agent. Agent 1 and Agent 2 have been very helpful to me over the years."

"Are they...?" I slid my finger across my throat.

"Dead? Of course not!" he stared at me in disbelief for a moment, "they still regularly help me from time to time but they are more or less retired from active agent field work."

"Oh..." I faintly blushed in response.

"However, I'm gonna give you something of theirs," hobbling over to the shed he went into it and came back several minutes later with a wrapped bundle in his hands, "these are hand me downs from Agents 1 and 2 but they should still fit you pretty well."

Unwrapping the bundle revealed a black long-sleeved jacket with high collar, a bright yellow reflective vest, black and yellow shoes and a headset that would have easily slipped over my ears, "what are these for?"

"That is your agent gear Agent 3. It will give you added protection against Octarian ink and a method for you to communicate with me so I'll be there every step of the way. Go ahead...try them on."

"Um...alright," unzipping the jacket I slipped it over my shoulders and zipped it back up before doing the same with the vest. Kicking my cream colored sneakers off I laced up the black and yellow ones up and stood up with the headset hanging around my neck, "they fit pretty well actually Captain."

"Great! One last thing I need to give you," pulling his hands from behind his back he held up a ink weapon with similar design to the gear and an ink tank.

I raised an eyebrow at him confused, "I thought you said I wouldn't be fighting Octarians?"

"I did, these are precautionary just in case you run into some accidentally. This is what I call the Hero Shot which works more or less like a regular Splattershot...you have used one right?"

"Uh...does the Jr Splattershot count?"

"Close enough," he handed it to me as well as the tank, "also if by some rare chance you do run into trouble there is a small handful of respawn points but they only hold enough energy to revive you a few times before they run out of energy, after that if you get splatted it's game over."

I swallowed nervously, "Right...got it."

"Good, the entrance to the area where the baby Zapfish is just over there," he pointed to a spot about ten feet away from us, "the entrance is currently being cloaked with some form of device but hitting it with your ink should disrupt the cloaking device on the entrance."

Strapping my ink tank on I started shooting orange ink at the area he indicated and after a few shots I heard something fizzle out before a grate on a raised dome revealed itself, "okay...here goes nothing..." climbing on to it I stood on top of the grate as I turned back to Cuttlefish, "is there any other advice you have for me?" I called out to him.

"Yes, don't get hit!" he answered as he gave me a thumbs up.

"Yeah, thanks Captain...I'll keep that in mind," muttering under my breath about how stupid this was I pulled the headset up onto my ears before, with a final shuddering breath, I shifted into squid form and slipped through the grate and into the unknown.


	7. Zapfish and Octarians

_Author's notes: Hey I'm back again for summer to do more chapter updates._

 _Hope you enjoy!_

 **Chapter 7: Zapfish and Octarians**

Out of all the things I'd thought I'd see down in a secret dome where supposedly our race's greatest enemy resided a bright clearing-like area wasn't one of them.

Landing on my knees I gritted my fangs tightly as I groaned loudly, staring at the ground for several minutes as I waited for the pain to stop. Looking up I gasped as I saw a clear sky with tiny clouds and dozens of floating platforms scattered in front of me, "What...?"

"It's not the real sky Agent 3, it's just an illusion the Octarians set up to look real."

I nearly swore out loud as I jumped a little at the sudden sound of the captain's voice through my headset. It was going to take a bit to get used to it, "Oh...I-I guess that makes sense..."

"Don't worry Agent 3 you'll probably won't see any Octarians. This dome is pretty inactive."

"If you say so..." I mumbled as pulling the Hero Shot from its holster next to my tank and moved forward.

Eventually I ran across a swirling pool next to an inactive respawn point. Seeing how lifeless it seemed I shuddered, "Cap'n Cuttlefish?"

"Yes Bucko?"

I cringed at the nickname but tried to ignore it, "I found a respawn point...but it seems dead..."

"Ah, you must have come across an emergency port."

"Emergency port?"

"A very special type of respawn point that will be able to bring you back with some of the energy stored in it, however most of these don't have very much energy now and can only bring you back a few times before it runs out of energy. After that, unless it's reserves are out, it will teleport you back here in Octo Valley if you get splatted again."

"Oh..." taking a step closer the modified respawn point glowed bright green like my current ink color before dimming down to gently pulsing green glow, "are these all over the place?"

"Yep...you'd see quite a few or these if you explored more of the domes."

"Why is there so many?"

He hesitated before answering, "Well I did say you are not my only Agent."

"True..." something about the way he said it seemed odd but I decided not to question him.

"You should be near a super jump port as well if I remember correctly..."

I glanced over at the swirling pool I saw earlier, "should it be the same color as me?"

"Oh! You found it?"

"I think so..." I took another look around myself only to see I was at a dead end. Going back would have been pointless and I didn't see a way forward...except...

Gently stepping into the pool I felt it sucking at the bottoms of my shoes. Since I couldn't think of anything else to try with it I instinctively shifted into my squid form after a minute of simply standing on it and it doing nothing.

Immediately I felt a large amount of ink rush into my body and before I could do anything I shot into the air a second later.

I yelled loudly as I flew until I saw I was about to land. Bringing my legs forward I only stumbled a little as I touched down on something solid again.

"Fun wasn't it?"

I clenched my fangs tightly before answering, "A little warning about what it did would have been nice Cap'n..."

"Oh...sorry about that lad."

"It's fine Cap'n, I'm not hurt or anyth-" I froze as I saw something suddenly round a corner and start coming towards me. Looking at it longer I realized the thing was actually two things the first being a small scooter of some sort but it was the thing driving it that was the main reason I stopped moving.

It's skin was maroon in color and was pretty short in comparison to me with bright luminous green eyes with purple markings around its eyes but I could only see one of its eyes since the other one was covered by its one long tentacle.

"C-cap'n...?"

"What is it Agent 3?"

"What do-ack!" I ducked as a large blob of purple colored ink almost hit me in the face. Looking up I saw the strange creature had spotted me.

"Intruder! We have an intruder!" I heard it cry out before with a twist of the joystick like handle a hose like object rose and started to aim at me.

"Oh carp!" I ducked behind some random crates as another blob of ink came at me, "Cap'n I'm being shot at!"

"You're what?!"

"I thought you said this dome was inactive?!"

"I-it should be...maybe it's just someone on patrol..." he suddenly sounded uncertain of himself on that fact.

"Well either way I need help!" I winced inwardly as another blob whizzed inches away from my face.

"Don't you have your Hero Shot Agent 3?"

"Yes?"

"Then use it to take the Octarian down!"

"B-but..." a sound to my left caused me to fall silent as I went behind another crate as I heard the Octarian start speaking again.

"The intruder appears to be neutralized. Beginning search for potential other intruders..." the sound of his scooter getting closer made me tense up as he came around the corner of the crate.

"N-no!" pulling the trigger a blast of green ink came out of the weapon and hit the Octarian straight in the chest. With a screech of pain it exploded into green ink right in front of me.

"Agent 3...? Agent 3?!"

"Y-yes Cap'n...?" I finally stammered out.

"You alright lad?"

"I'm fine..." slowly I got up from the ground.

"Perhaps you should come back then..."

"N-no sir...I can do this..." lifting the Hero Shot up I started moving forward.

"You sure?"

"Yeah..." I stopped in front of another super jump port. Turning into a squid I launched high into the air and landed on a different floating platform.

I didn't see any more Octarians as I continued to progress through the place so when I came across a raised area on one platform I was somewhat cautious, "sir...I think I found something..."

"What is it...?"

"A large pedestal or something..." looking at the top I blinked rapidly at a sudden bright light that came from it suddenly, "...and there is something really bright on the top of it..."

"That has got to be the Zapfish Agent 3! You're almost out of there."

"That's great Cap-" stepping forward I was suddenly met with a decent sized Octarian that erupted from the purple ink.

"Intruder detected!" it roared as it shot several large shots of purple ink at me.

Ducking behind a crate I yelped as I felt the ink touch my sleeve and start seeping into it. The following burning sensation made me yell even louder as I tried wiping the ink off me which only made my hand then burn.

"Get into your own ink Agent 3!" Cap'n Cuttlefish cried out.

Gritting my teeth I dropped onto my stomach as I shifted. The cooling touch of my ink on my skin was somewhat soothing to the irritated areas on my body, "S-sir..."

"You alright Agent 3?"

"I think so...their ink hurts a lot..."

"It's extremely poisonous to our race. The very touch of it burns our skin worse than acid. Thankfully our own ink has healing properties to our race..."

"Y-yeah..." turning back into my humanoid form I kneeled in the puddle of my ink as I tried regaining my breath, "what would happen if I got hit with more ink than I did?"

"You saw what happened to that first Octarian you took down..."

I swallowed as I nodded only to remember he couldn't see me, "yes sir...I understand..."

"Good...you better hurry before you alert more of them."

"Right..." taking a deep breath I braced myself mentally as I came out from behind the crate with the hope that the Octarian had wondered off.

As I came out though it took all my self control not to cry in in fear like a squirt when I saw it was right in front of me with its weapon now trained on my face.

"Thought you could hide from me Inkling?!" It demanded with a thick accent that I was coming to the conclusion was normal to the Octarians, our language must not originally been the same as theirs.

"I was hoping..." I admitted with a nervous laugh before leaping to the side as I shifted.

"Intruder on the run! Currently in pursuit!" I heard it say as the sound of ink flying through the air reached my ears. Zigzaging through the green ink I tried to avoid getting hit again.

Going into humanoid form while in midair I turned my head while landing only to end up with ink in my eyes, "ack!" reaching up to my face I took a step forward only to feel myself trip over a crack in the worn tarmac. Crashing to the floor pain flared up from the side of my head as I felt my weapon slip out of my fingers.

Wiping the ink out of my eyes I scoured the ground desperately as my eyes continued to water until I swung my head to my left and ended up with the muzzle of an Octarian weapon in my face, "Nice try Inkling..."

Blinking back tears I looked up at the Octarian in disbelief which made it chuckle, "Who's idea was it to send a little kid out to fight against Octarians?"

"N-none of your business!" I finally stammered out which only made him laugh more.

"I don't know which is funnier...the old coot sending a kid out here or the fact the kid stupid enough to think he could handle it..." He stopped laughing however when he saw me aiming my Hero Shot at his face as I glared at him.

"I'm not just some stupid kid! I'm Agent 3 and I can totally handle it!" his eyes grew wide with fear for a second before he exploded into ink.

"Agent 3...? You okay?" the Cuttlefish eventually asked me after several minutes of silence.

"Yeah...I'm okay..." I suddenly felt drained and my head was still slightly throbbing from hitting the ground as I spoke to him, "I just need to go get the Zapfish and I'll be out of here," looking down I spotted something glittering in the ink from the Octarian exploding. Picking it up I quickly realized it was a key.

"The Octarian was a guard..." looking around I spotted a vault that was clearly covering something up.

Walking over to it I slipped the key into a hole in it and it opened to reveal a super jump port. Slipping into squid form I flew over to the pedestal and landed on the edge as I blinked several times while I waited for my eyes to adjust to the sudden light.

After a minute the light died down and I could finally see that what had caused was a small yellow fish in a light bulb shaped container.

It wasn't the fish itself that had glowed but the wires its long whiskers were attached to. As I approached it let out a squeak of fear until the wires lit up and it yelped in pain instead, "how could they let such a cute little creature be in so much pain...?"

"They don't care about the pain they are causing Agent 3..."

"I can see that..." biting my lip I shot at the container and covered my head as glass flew past my face before stepping forward to release the Zapfish from the wires.

* * *

"You did very well Agent 3," the captain told me as he looked at the young Zapfish that was still curled up around my chest. Its entire body shuddering in fear as I gently rubbed the top of its head.

"Thank you Cap'n," I stopped petting the Zapfish with a sigh, "I wasn't quite expecting what had happened..."

"I'm sorry lad...that wasn't how it was supposed to go. It seems the Octarians must have known I'd send an agent to stop them. At least you made it back in one piece and now that we have this Zapfish it will be able to bring us one step closer to stopping them," he held out his hands to me, "you can let go of it now Marlin and be on your way."

I hesitated as I took a step back, "Um, actually Cap'n...I'd like to reconsider your offer..."

"What?" he looked at me confused for a second before recognition came into his eyes, "you mean...?"

"Yeah, I'll be an agent for you..."

"Why did you change your mind?"

"The fact that the Octarians have no care for the pain they are causing...it's not right. I can't let them do this!"

"If you are certain..."

"I am."

"Very well...from this point on you are officially Agent 3. No other agent can bare this title and no other person besides other agents are to know of these missions you'll be going on...you understand?"

I nodded.

"Good...since I need to be able to get in touch with you whenever I need you take this..." grabbing something out of his pocket he pulled out a black bracelet with white markings, "it's made so it will only work for you once you put it on. It's your communicator for when you aren't in the field and wearing those..." he pointed to the headset around my neck currently, "keep it close and on your person at all times."

"I will," slipping it on the bands went from white to orange on it as I adjusted it on my wrist.

"Alright...the gear is also yours so you may want to take it home and get cleaned..."

"What?" lifting my arms up I recoiled slightly at the smell of sweat and body odor as it reached my nose, "okay...point taken..."

"Mhm...rest and prepare for tomorrow, you'll certainly need it..."

"Thank you Cap'n," I gave him a quick bow before handing him the Zapfish. Slipping behind the shack to go change I got back into my gear from before and walked back out with my agent gear in my hands to find him holding a black Turf War bag.

"I noticed you don't seem to have one...you can use it to hide your agent gear."

"Oh...thank you Cap'n..." taking it from him I hastily tossed the stuff into it, "I don't suppose there is another way out of here besides..." I indicated the sewer grate.

"Fraide not Agent 3. But it hasn't been used for actual sewage in a long time."

"That doesn't make me feel better..." taking a deep breath I walked over to it and dropped down into it in squid form.

* * *

Pulling myself back up through the grate at the edge of the plaza was difficult, but not impossible once I had realized a small super jump up to it would give me enough height to allow me to grasp the bars. Once I was out I shifted back to prevent myself from falling back down, "oh cod...I've been down there a lot longer than I thought..." with a groan I looked up at the dusk filled sky, "Whark's gonna kill me..."

"You're certainly got one thing right!" I turned my head in time to see Whark come at me before pinning me to a wall, "where the kelp have you been?!"

"S-sorry...I had to..." I stopped myself as I took a quick glance at the black bracelet on my wrist, "I...I had to be alone for a bit..."

"You ran off!"

"Whark he said he was sorry about running off!" Alga rushed up and pulled him off me, "can't we just leave it at that?!"

"I suppose..." he glared at me for a moment before he finally relaxed, "just...don't leave without saying something first...okay?"

"Yeah, I will," I nodded.

"Alright...while you were gone we found a few apartments to rent. With our wins from today I was able to make a down payment on one while Alga did the same with another."

"What about Noi?"

"Noi Humloche? She went home I believe..." Alga explained, "from what I gathered her family actually lives in Inkopolis."

"Really...?" I didn't mean to make it sound like I was upset about it but after I had said it I couldn't help notice Whark raise an eyebrow at me until he noticed I was staring at him and he dropped his gaze.

"We should get going...it's nearly sundown. Come on Mari-I mean Marlin..." he started heading down a side street with me having no choice but to follow as quickly as I could after nodding a goodbye at Alga who had a worried look on her face as she watched us leave.

After several minutes of walking Whark climbed up onto the porch steps of a small apartment house as he pulled out a key, "There's two keys...one for each of us," he tossed one at me which I barely caught, "I'm serious about what I said before...don't run off like that again man..."

"Don't worry...I won't," I insisted as I took in the place as we walked in, "pretty nice place..."

"Yeah...we got lucky," he let out a yawn, "but I don't know about you but I'm going to go sleep...night Marlin."

"Yeah...night Whark..." as he walked into the bedroom I couldn't stop myself from looking at the bracelet again, "what have I gotten myself into...?"


	8. Morning Calls

_Author's notes: Hey guys another chapter for you!_

 _Also don't forget to review...how else am I supposed to know if I'm doing a good job at this if nobody will say something._

 **Chapter 8: Morning Calls**

I may be more of a morning person than most Inklings but there's huge a difference between getting up at like 9 or 10 in the morning and getting up at a little after 6.

So when my communicator went off at that before mentioned uncodly hour of six I felt very much like punching something after I jumped at the sudden loud beeping before nearly falling off my cot onto the wood floor.

Reaching up for it I swiftly silenced it before letting out a hissing breath, "I'm gonna get him for this..."

"What the kelp was that noise?!" Whark stumbled into my room looking as irritated as I felt about the rude awakening. Being even more likely to sleep in than me he probably was ten times more pissed than he was letting on.

"Sorry...I forgot I set an alarm..." trying not to draw too much attention I shoved the communicator under my pillow to hide it.

"But why now?!"

"I wanted an early start..."

He stared at me in disbelief, "for what?!"

"T-training..." I bit my lip as I said it. It wasn't technically a lie but it wasn't the full truth either.

He stared at me for another solid minute before walking back out of my room with a groan, "you are so weird Marlin..." a few seconds later I heard his door shut.

Without missing a beat I dove under my pillow for the communicator before grabbing the bag under my bed as well as my key for the apartment which I shoved into my pocket. Walking out of my room I took a deep breath while looking in the direction of Whark's bedroom before hurrying out the door.

* * *

"Good morning Agent 3!" Cap'n Cuttlefish gave me a grin as I walked over to him with a yawn, "you get enough sleep?"

"Sorta..." looking up at him I couldn't help but notice that he didn't even remotely look tired at all even with how early it was.

"Well hope you feel up to another mission Agent 3."

"I guess..." I let out another yawn.

"Actually if you can get two more Zapfish there should be enough energy to get to one of the bigger kettles open..." he said little hesitantly.

My ears immediately pricked up, "bigger kettles?"

"Mhm...to be honest I'm not sure what is down them..." his expression turned briefly ashen, "hopefully nothing, but we can't leave a single stone left unturned."

"Of course Cap'n..." with a nod I slipped my headset on, "just two more and we can check this big kettle out?"

"That's...correct," he again hesitated as he said it.

"Give me about five hours and I can get you those Zapfish."

* * *

Ducking behind a column I barely dodged the explosion of a strange robot that had started chasing me, it's main body containing large quantities of Octarian ink, "these Octarians surely know how to keep someone on their toes..." with a shaky breath I peered out behind the column to find the coast clear.

Jumping from another Super Jump launchpad eventually led me to a tall tower that as I crane my neck I could see the wink of a Zapfish glow up at the top, "great...how do I get up there..." looking behind me I saw a shorter tower with something I had only seen in history books...until now.

"They use Ink Cannons still...?" Heading towards it I was stunned to see it appeared to be in one piece still. The ancient device being meant as a way to take out large group of attackers by using large quantities of ink excreted by the user in their animal form according to the books I had read.

Looking back towards the tower a sudden thought occured to me, "hm...I wonder..." looking in the reservoir there was small traces of dried purple ink on the sides and bottom but nothing fresh or in large enough amounts to hurt me. Without another thought I hopped in and started releasing ink from my ink sac into the reservoir.

By the time I had enough ink to get it working my lack of sleep was taking its toll. Inklings often use the hours asleep to replenish their ink supply lost over the course of the previous day but since I hadn't gotten much sleep I was becoming light headed from the lack of ink in my system. Shaking my head I concentrated on using the sight correctly as I grabbed a control stick in the tank with a tentacle. Once I had aimed at the opposite tower I pushed the button on the top of the control stick.

The cannon violently shuddered for a few seconds before a giant glob of my ink shot out of it and hit the opposite tower. As it collided the entire structure visibly shook for a good solid minute before settling again.

Climbing back out I shifted to humanoid form and laid against the side of the cannon, panting a little, "ugh..."

"You okay Agent 3?"

"Yeah...just suffering from minor RIL..."

"RIL?"

"Rapid Ink Loss..." I shook my head again as my vision swam a little, "don't worry Cap'n I'm almost done with this mission..." I stood up, wobbling for a few seconds, before moving forward.

With the wall inked it didn't take much for me to climb up it and make it towards the top where the Zapfish squealed at my sudden appearance. Walking over to it I broke the container in a few shots of ink which made it squeak even louder.

"It's okay little guy..." I calmly told it. Unclipping its whiskers I pulled it free, "Cap'n Cuttlefish I have the second Zapfish and am on my way back."

Much to my surprise I was met by static.

"Cap'n?"

More static answered my question.

"Cap'n if you can hear me my headset seems to be malfunctioning..."

"I'm afraid the captain can't at the moment Agent 3...and no your headset is working just fine..."

My blood ran instantly cold as the sound of the new voice, "who are you and what have you done to the Cap'n?"

"Don't worry...the crazy goatfish is untouched...for now," the voice snickered under his breath like he had just heard a joke and I was the punchline.

"I mean it! Who are you!?" I growled a little.

The voice started to laugh again, "if you keep knocking about in my turf I'm sure we'll meet...eventually..." a burst of white noise rang into my ears, causing me to wince before I was met with silence.

"C-cap'n...?" I dared after a minute.

"Yes bucko?" Cuttlefish's puzzled voice made me sigh a little in relief, "is something wrong?"

"No sir...everything is fine..." I couldn't help but start looking around myself as a feeling of being watched crept in, "I'll be back in a few Cap'n," ending the conversation I prepared to make my way back to Octo Valley.

* * *

"I think you should rest Agent 3..." he frowned as I nearly ran into a tree I temporarily didn't notice, having taken my headset off I realized my hearing and balance was messed up as well as having the dizzy spells, "that Ink Cannon took its toll on you I think..."

"What about the big kettle?"

"Being the captain of a Splatoon back during the war I had to learn to read my fellow teammates to determine the best course of action in their current condition," he placed a hand on my shoulder, "and what I'm seeing right now telling is me you need some rest..."

"Bu-"

"No buts bucko, you need rest!" He yelled.

The stern look he gave made me immediately shut my mouth as I nodded.

His expression lightened after a minute with a sigh, "you're just as bad as my granddaughters..."

"Your granddaughters?" I couldn't help but him.

"Yes...they don't seem to know when to quit either..." he let out a soft chuckle, "I love them both but they can be a handful..."

"I'm sure you do sir..."

"Yes..." he sighed a little as his mind appeared briefly elsewhere until he returned his attention back to me, "I'm serious though Agent 3, get some rest and go hang out with your friends...a boy at your age should be doing that."

"Okay, okay Cap'n...I'm gone," with a smile I grabbed my bag and headed towards the exit. Looking back I gave him a quick wave before dropping down.

Climbing back up without being seen wasn't too hard since it was still pretty early in the morning. As I lugged my bag onto my shoulder though I couldn't help but stare surprised at the sight of Noi coming out of the hat shop.

Ducking behind a column I peeked out from behind it and watched as she headed into one of the cafés with a shopping bag in her hand, "w-what!? Why is she awake...?"

Curiosity got the better of me as I darted across the plaza. Looking through the window I saw her sit down as a purple tentacled waitress started taking her order.

Taking a deep breath I quickly went over to the door rushed into the cafe only to nearly plow into the same waitress I had seen talking to Noi, "Hey speedster! Watch where you are going!" she glared at me with brilliantly dark purple eyes as she brushed her apron like I had gotten it dirty.

"I'm...s-sorry..." stammering a little I held up my hands in defense, "I didn't mean to run into you."

"You better be sorry!" she snapped, "I could have you kicked out you know!"

"Marlin?" looking behind the angry waitress I saw Noi coming towards us.

The waitress looked over at the lilac Inkling as well, "you know him Noi?"

"Yeah Leef, he's my friend."

She raised an eyebrow, "your friend?"

"Yes, don't worry he won't cause anymore problems..." taking my hand she dragged me towards the booth she had been at while Leef continued to shoot daggers at the back on my head.

"Thanks Noi...I thought she was about to put my head on a plate and serve it to one of the customers."

"Yeah...Leef can go from cheerful to pissed in a matter of seconds. It's even more likely to occur if you say anything bad about her son or younger sister."

I shuddered, "remind me if I ever meet her sister not to say anything bad...most likely I'd just pissed them both off."

"I don't know about that...she's younger than us so it's gonna be a few years before she comes to Inkopolis...you may never meet her."

"Let's hope so..." I laid my head on the table as my stomach gurgled. Whether from how ill I felt or me being hungry I wasn't certain.

"Marlin you okay? You look a little pale..."

"Yeah...I'm fine..."

"Liar," reaching over she lifted my head and looked into my mouth, "your gums are pale too...you look like you're suffering from Ink Loss..."

"I did some training this morning," I told her, using the same lie I told Whark earlier.

"Some training...your body is having trouble coping with the low amounts of ink in your body," she waved at Leef who groaned as she walked over, "can you get him some water and some form of meat?"

She nodded as she walked away, "what's the water and meat for?" I asked.

"Ink is a mix of mostly mucus and animo acids...we need your body to start making more ink."

"Oh..." I watched helplessly Leef came back with a glass and a plate with some shrimp, "how did she know...?"

"How did she know what?" She slid the water over to me.

"That I like shrimp..." I chugged the water down as I realized how thirsty I was.

"I don't know..." she shrugged, "she probably just guessed, now eat! I'm not going to let my friend faint in front of me."

"Wait...you were serious about the 'being my friend' part?"

"Yeah...why wouldn't I be?"

"Um, I don't know..." I could feel my face getting warm.

"Your other friends gonna get mad at me?" her accent suddenly got thicker as a smile broke out on her face.

"No its just a surprise...we only just met."

"Who cares..."she leaned back in her seat, "now start eating or I'll start shoving them into your mouth for you."

Not sure if she was joking or not I started to eat. After consuming about half of the plate and downing another glass my dizziness had faded away, "thanks Noi," I reached for my wallet to pay.

"Oh no you don't! This is on me Marlin Colorian."

"But I was the one who ate it."

"Not all of it..." she took one I hadn't eaten and popped it into her mouth, "I would also suggest getting a nap or something in, it will help you recover more easily."

"I guess you have a point..." I stood up.

Noi stood up as well, "yeah, it was nice seeing you again Marlin...you kinda ran off after that match."

I immediately blushed, "I'm really sorry about that..."

"I'm sure you had a reason," coming up to me she planted a quick kiss on my cheek, "but I hope I'll get to see you more later...both in and out of matches. Anyway hope to see you Marlin," she then walked away from the booth and out the door of the café while I stood there rooted to the spot.

As I stood there my body suddenly began to feel really warm as my chest ached like I had been hit there. After a minute though it faded away as I finally reached my hand up to my face where she had kissed me, "w-what...?"

I could hear Leef behind me let out a sigh of annoyance which made me realize I probably looked very stupid just standing there for no reason.

Blushing a little more I shoved my hands into my pockets only to find something crumpled in the bottom of my right pocket. Sitting back down at the booth I took out a folded plain piece of paper. Unfolding it revealed a short message written on it.

 _Hey it was fun being part of your team yesterday, hope I can become a permanent member~_

 _Noi Humloche._

Underneath it was a short series of numbers that confused me a good minute until suddenly I realized what it was. Looking out the window quickly I tried seeing if I could spot her but she had already disappeared out of sight.

Looking back down at the paper I could barely keep my hand steady as I folded it back up and put it back in my pocket. Getting up it took all my self control not to run out excitedly like a squirt on Squidmas day at the thought of trying out the phone number later.


	9. Between a Block and a Hard Place

_Author's notes: Sorry about the wait...had trouble figuring out how to do certain parts of the chapter so it got done later then I anticipated. But I eventually figured it out._

 _Hope you enjoy._

 **Chapter 9: Between a Block and a Hard Place**

"Wow...you got a girl's phone number..." Whark whistled softly as the two of us walked down the street. Two days had past since I had ran into Noi in the café and so far I hadn't dared use the number to contact her and had only decided this morning to tell Whark, which I was already regretting, "...and a cute girl I might add..."

"The fact she's cute doesn't matter Whark!" I insisted but I could feel my face growing warm.

He grinned, "yeah sure whatever you say Marlin..."

I growled, "Whark I'm serious!"

He stopped walking and stood in front of me as he placed his hands on my shoulders, "and I'm serious too...and I really think you need a girlfriend dude."

A mix of panic and disbelief filled me as my eyes grew wide, "What? Why would you tell me that?"

"You two I think would make a great couple."

I frowned, "Whark...since when have you been interested in girls?"

He hesitated for a minute, "we aren't little squirts now Marlin...it's normal to go-"

"That's not what I meant Whark..."

He looked down at his shoes for a second before letting out a shaky breath, "I still think you should find someone."

"Why should I?" I tried ducking under his arm only to have him get in my path again.

"Because you need something else other than training to take your mind off your mom," a look of worry crossed his face, "I know it was getting bad just before we left...Marin..."

I bit my lip, "how long...?"

"A few weeks before we left...I ran in your cousin one day as he was heading home..." he gave me a wry smile, "Ploosh really doesn't know when to stay quiet about stuff..."

"yeah he doesn't...but a relationship won't fix anything dude..." shoving him aside I continued to walk down the sidewalk.

As we walked up to a food court Alga waved at us quickly while Noi simply glanced up while taking a sip of her drink, "about time you two showed up!"

"Why? What's the rush?" I sat down across from Noi while Whark sat next to me.

"We need to plan out training sessions and stuff so that we can get better as a team," she shoved a crab cake into her mouth and swallowed it several seconds later before continuing, "Soral won't get us a second time."

"How can we be so certain we'll win?" Whark asked as he watched Alga continue to eat with a look of disgust.

"Well for one thing you have me and I know how each member of her team plays," Noi answered.

"Actually...I've been meaning to ask you about that..." I started to say.

"Huh?" she gave me a puzzled look, "what do you mean?"

"Well you seem to know Soral pretty well..."

She snorted, "She's a big fat pain in the beak, it's pretty hard to not know of her."

"I guess...but what about Azuse?"

"What about Azuse?"

"How did you know she was colorblind?"

She froze like she had been shot, "h-how did I know she was c-colorblind?"

"Yeah...that's a rather personal piece of information."

"That's a good point Marlin..." Whark stared at Noi as I saw a look of fear entered into her eyes, "how would you know that just from normal interactions?"

"Um...that's a good question...you see I-" she suddenly jumped as a loud beeping rang out. In the process she knocked her cup over, spilling soda all over the table.

As the other three panicked I quickly reached up into my sleeve and pressed the mute button on my communicator. Looking up I saw Whark looking at me suspiciously as Alga helped Noi clean up the spilled drink.

"What the kelp was that...?!" Alga demanded as Noi gained a distant look as she stared at the table.

"That was Marlin..." Whark glared, "...and his stupid watch thing!"

"That was a watch...?"

"Um, yeah it was..." I slowly started to get up, "I accidentally woke up Whark with it a couple of times now..."

"Where are you going Marlin!"

"I forgot I had somewhere to go to...I need to leave now," once I had stood up I pushed my chair in, "I'll see you guys later."

"Oh cod no you're not!" Whark quickly grabbed my shirt, "we are having a meeting. Whatever stupid thing it is can wait!"

"A-actually I should probably return home..." shaking her head Noi stood up as well, "I'm sure we can plan a meeting at a better time."

Whark made a sound deep in his throat as he glared at me for a good solid minute. Eventually he let me go, "fine...let's plan for tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me, see you back at the apartment later Whark," running out of the food court I started heading towards the entrance to Octo Valley. As i rounded a corner I pulled my sleeve up as I brought the communicator up to my face, "Cap'n is it time?"

"It is...where are you?"

"Coming to the entrance as we speak sir. I'll be there in-" the sudden appearance of something solid in my path caught me so off guard that I nearly fell backwards from hitting it, "what the...oh carp..."

"The kelp?!" Soral whipped around to face me before giving me a hiss, "you!?"

"Oh geez...sorry about that Soral," I scrambled backwards as she started moving towards me enraged, "I wasn't paying attention..."

"You asking for a beating hotshot?!"

"No I'm not I swear!" I raised my arms up only to have her pin me to a wall.

"Kinda looks like it..." she raised a fist to punch me, "say you're sorry one more time and I might hurt you less."

"Hey! What are you two kids up to?!" turning my head I saw a police officer coming towards us.

Soral hissed under her breath as she lowered her arm back down, "you got lucky this time...next time you won't be," giving me a shove she walked off as the officer came up to me, giving Soral a frown.

"You okay kid?"

"Yeah I'm fine."

"If I were you I'd end it before it gets worse."

"She's not my girlfriend sir..."

"Oh..." he rubbed the back of his head, "either way she looks like she could be trouble...wanna file a restraining order on her? I could take you to the station to do it."

"No thank you...I have somewhere I really need to be," with a nod at him I shuffled away until I was out of sight before running.

* * *

Jumping up from the grate into the valley I brushed myself off while looking up to find Cuttlefish watching me, "you heard that, didn't you?"

"I'm afraid so Agent 3. I didn't realize you were having problems with the other kids your age. Perhaps we ought to postpone looking into..."

"No, no...I'm fine, really."

He raised an eyebrow, "are you certain?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," I quickly nodded.

"Well...alright I guess we should get this mission started..." walking ahead he led the way as I followed while slipping my vest on over the rest of my Agent gear.

Standing in front of the giant tea kettle a sudden feeling of dread came to me as stepping onto the grating I looked down through it before swallowing hard.

"Nervous?" Looking up I saw Cuttlefish gripping his cane tightly as he watched me.

"A little..."

Even though I couldn't see it I sensed a wry smile behind his beard, "good...being too confident can cause an agent to become too cocky...but I doubt you'd do that..."

"Um...yeah..." slipping my headset on I dropped through the grate.

The drop was a lot longer than I anticipated so when I finally made it to solid ground again I stumbled a little away from the entrance before looking around, "wow...this place is huge..."

"See anything Agent 3?"

"So far no..." jumping from a launchpad I nimbly landed on a large circular plateform with a large structure in the center, "huh...that's weird..."

"What is?"

"There is a large metal block here..."

"A-a what?"

"I metal block..." I cocked my head to the side, "...kinda like a cube..."

A gasp entered into my headset, "No...it can't be..."

"You know what it is?"

"Yes I do. Agent 3 you need to-" a sudden burst of static interrupted him.

"Cap'n?!"

"I see you decided to ignore me Agent 3...I'm a little disappointed..."

"You!" pulling my Hero Shot out I started looking around myself, "of course I won't give up you have our Zapfish."

"I thought you'd say that...consider this a warning...one of very few me and my master will give you," a loud audible clang rang out as a hatch in the ceiling opened and a container with a baby Zapfish in it dropped down.

I took a step towards the center only to jump back as a large tentacle shot up and grabbed the container with a squeal the Zapfish disappeared into the structure before with a sound of whirring gears the structure lifted itself up onto a pair of legs.

"What the kelp?!" taking another step back I heard laughter as the static returned for a moment before I heard Cuttlefish yelling at me.

"Agent 3 what are you doing?! You're not ready to handle the Octostomp! Get out of there!"

"Octo-stomp?" I yelped as the giant thing turned around to reveal a large face staring at me. Glaring it started wadding towards me.

"Ack! Cap'n how do I deal with this thing?!"

"You were never meant to fight it! I could have sworn Agent 1 and 2 had taken it out..."

"Cap'n, help me!" looking up at it the Octostomp hovered over me before jumping into the air above my head.

Jumping out of the way a wave of Octarian ink hit my back as I kept my head down for several seconds. Looking up I turned my head to find the Octostomp face planted into the ground while it's legs wiggled wildly, "it's...stuck?"

"Agent 3 if you can get up top you can weaken it!"

"What?" Looking at its side I realized the metal surface was clearly inkable. Getting up quickly I started painting the sides as the Octostomp entire body started to shudder.

"No! Don't get up!" jumping into the ink path I had made I quickly climbed up it onto the top and found a tentacle sticking out of it. Aiming at it I shot it several times before it exploded and knocked me backwards off the Octostomp onto the ground.

"Got it Cap'n..." wincing I sat up only to scoot backwards as the Octostomp hopped back onto its feet. Shaking itself several metal panels fell off its side, "or not..."

"It's gonna take more than that to take it out sadly Agent 3..."

"Great...I have to play sea chicken with a giant metal block that wants to kill me..." getting up I started moving around slowly so it would come after me. Just as it jumped into the air again I leaped out of range of the ink it splashed out. Turning around I started inking the panels that were still there before climbing up again and destroyed the tentacle that had popped out before jumping back down.

Shrieking in frustration the Octostomp shook again, sending more panels flying as it came charging towards me.

"Oh carp, Cap-" before I knew it I felt my body explode from being squashed while I was in blackness for several minutes before with a gasp I respawned at the respawn point, "that hurt more than normal..."

"These respawn aren't as powerful as the one they use in Turf Wars which means they can't make the respawn process come as easily."

"Oh no..." placing a hand on my chest I took a deep breath before diving off the platform back into the arena, "hey big guy! I'm not done yet!"

The Octostomp turned around and started coming towards me again. At the last minute I jumped out out of the way and turned my head to see the Octostomp had turned around as well, "you aren't getting me that easily," shifting into squid form I swam away as it slammed into the ground.

Inking the last panels I started climbing up as it shuddered before standing back up.

"Ack!" shifting back I grabbed the edge of a panel as the Octostomp started moving around.

"Hold on Agent 3!"

"I'm trying to sir..." gritting my teeth my knuckles turned white as my arms started tiring.

Finally the Octostomp stopped moving for a second before launching itself into the air and landing on the ground. As it hit my grip let go as I briefly was launched up myself before crashing down unto the back of it while the tentacle wagged in the air.

Groaning I pulled myself up to my knees as I aimed at the tentacle, "and stay down!" pulling the trigger I watched as the tentacle burst before the entire machine started shuddering violently underneath me.

Crawling to the edge I shifted into squid form and fell down into my ink as with a high pitched whine the machine exploded and sprayed large amounts of my ink all over the place as I ducked down to avoid flying pieces of metal.

Poking my head back up I looked to see the Zapfish container laying on its side and the baby Zapfish squeaking in panic.

Getting up I rushed over and broke the container. As it burst the Zapfish leaped up and curled around my neck as its body continued to quiver and tiny arcs of electricity came off its whiskers.

"I got the Zapfish Cap'n."

"Great job Agent 3. The fact they have the great Octoweapons functional again is somewhat worrisome...when you get back there is much we must discuss if you are to see more of them.

"Alright Cap'n..." looking down at the Zapfish it let out a frightened squeal as it looked up at me.

"It's okay little guy...it's over..." looking above I took one last look at where the Zapfish had come from the ceiling before heading back to the exit.


	10. The Unraveling of Things

**Chapter 10: The Unraveling of Things**

I couldn't resist letting a small smirk play across my face as I watched Sheldon stare at the old piece of paper in his hands with growing shock. His hands soon began to shake before he finally looked at me.

"Marlin...are you sure this is real?"

"As far as I can tell it is," leaning against the counter I tried to maintain a serious composure as he looked at me. Once he had looked away the smile returned, "just like the last one was."

"Yes...I still can't believe it..." one corner flopped slightly down, allowing me to see the rough sketch lines of some form of ink weapon on the side Sheldon was viewing. It looked nothing really like any ink weapon I had seen in his shop before.

"Think you could do something with it?" I felt my phone buzz in my pocket but chose to ignore it as I continued to look at the horseshoe crab.

"Most definitely, it will take several days of studying to be able to make it but I should have something if you want to try it out by the end of the week?"

"Sounds good," my phone buzzed again as I said it. Pulling my phone out I saw the name was "Whark" on the screen before putting the phone away, "see you later this week?"

"Of course Marlin...and thank you," folding the paper up carefully he scuttled back behind the counter and through a door into a back room.

Walking back out of the shop my phone went off again. Growling in annoyance I pulled it out to deny the call only to stop when I saw "N. Hemloch" instead. Smiling a little I raise the phone up to my ear, "Hey Noi...what's up?"

"You know your friends are pissed at you right?" her voice was deadpan serious as she said it.

"Wouldn't be the first time," I told her as I continue to travel into the plaza.

"Not like this...Marlin we were just in a meeting...and they are thinking about kicking you off the team."

"What?!" a jellyfish being jumped a little from my outburst as I passed him, "why didn't someone tell me there was a meeting today?"

"Have you checked your phone lately?"

Lowering the phone from my face I looked through it only to find twenty various messages from Whark and Alga as well as one from Noi. The receiving time being for most of them during my last visit to Octo Valley earlier that day. My phone having been muted during that time to avoid getting caught by any Octarians from it going off.

I raised the phone back up to my ear, "I just found them..."

"They were trying to get a hold of you all morning...where were you?"

"Busy...I had to keep my phone off during it."

"Busy doing what?"

I bit my lip, "Training..."

"Do you honestly think any of us believe that by this point?"

I bit my lip harder, tasting blood on my tongue, before hearing a sigh, "Marlin...I understand you want privacy but if you don't start explaining why you keep disappearing all the time..."

"I know..." covering the microphone with my hand for a moment I let out a shaky sigh before continuing, "I'm just not ready..."

"Not ready for what?"

"To tell them..." I leaned myself against a wall with a sigh, "I don't think I could tell them."

"Can you at least tell me?"

I stood there in silence, staring at the phone in my hand as I felt my mouth open and close repeatedly while I tried to figure out something to say to her. Anything that would help her understand why nobody, her especially, couldn't know.

"Look...Marlin..." her voice snapped me out of my thoughts as she continued, "I know we haven't know each other long...and we only started dating a few weeks ago..."

"N-Noi..."

"If you aren't ready to say what's going on its fine...but whatever is really going on sounds like it shouldn't be something done by just one person...and Marlin that scares me."

"I..."

"Just...please don't take long to finally say something...but when you are I'm here for you," there was a brief pause, "I gotta go, I'll talk to you later Marlin."

"Wait Noi I-" the click of the call ending caused me to snap my mouth shut with an audible click as I stared at it for several seconds.

Growling under my breath I quickly turned and punched the wall in frustration.

Immediately afterwards I had to bite back a curse as pain blossomed across my hand and I held it close to my chest, "C-carp...Marlin you are an idiot..." holding my hand up to my face I saw my fingers were awkwardly clenched in a fist as the skin started turning a dark purplish blue color.

Holding my hand with my other one I started stumbling off to get help.

* * *

"Agent 3...what did you do to cause this damage to your hand?"

"I uh...punched a wall..." I admitted before wincing as Cuttlefish wrapped my hand in a bandage after having to re-break the cartilage in my hands to set them properly. Since my rapid healing capabilities had already started to set it improperly the Captain had no other choice in the matter and thus I had to endure my hand breaking twice in the span of an hour.

"What did the wall do to make you do that?" he chuckled a little at his own joke before sighing, "or was it someone else that caused you to punch it?"

"It's nothing I can't handle Captain," after he was done wrapping my hand I looked at it before flexing it open and close several times, "besides it involves a girl..."

"A girl?" he whistled softly to himself, "well I can tell you Agent 3 girls can certainly be fickle creatures...but if you give them enough time they will eventually come to you."

"I'll take your word for it," lowering my arm back to my side I pushed myself off the chair, "I probably should get going."

"How about I make you something nice to eat before you go...crab cake perhaps?"

"Sure," a smile crept onto my face, "I'd like that."

"Give me two minutes and I'll have one whipped up faster than you can say, 'Twenty zany Zapfish'!" with a look of determination he marched into the other room.

Shaking my head slowly I decided to pass the time by looking around the place.

The area we were in was underneath what was the entrance room to the place on the ground level, lovingly known as "the shack" as I had heard Cuttlefish call it at one point. Most the walls were covered in notes and reports like on the wall outside of the shack and on various tables and shelves were random bits and bobs clearly left by the Captain who had started messing with them only to move on to something else.

Walking past a desk something bright yellow caught my eye, causing me to turn and see a life size baby Zapfish plush sitting on top of a stack of files. The yellow felt on it was patched with random pieces of cloth and a hat a lot like Cuttlefish's was stitched onto its head.

"Heh...well you're cu-" reaching for it I stopped when I noticed wrapped around one of its flippers was a piece of black cord and a piece of paper strung through it. The paper itself was yellow with fold marks like it had been folded multiple times before being attached to the toy.

"What's this?" Carefully I grabbed the plush off the stack and with some effort untied the cord before putting the plush back on the desk. Holding the note in my hand I stared at it curiously before opening it up to read the faded blue writing ink on the paper.

 _Walter_

 _Congrats on starting your own family. Having been a father myself (and now a grandfather,) I know you and May will do just fine. Here's a toy for Marin...I'm sure he'll love it, I know the ones I gave to my granddaughters were..._

 _Good luck in your new mission in life._

 _Cuttlefish_

As I held the paper in my hands I couldn't help but notice a slight trembling coming to them as I read the words over and over with increasing speed. I soon found myself repeatedly shaking my head from side to side as well before suddenly slapping the paper onto the desk.

"N-no...it can't be..." my gaze then fell to the stack of folders the plush had been sitting on. The one on top having in white bold letters the word "Confidential" on the front. Without a second thought I grabbed it and flipped it open.

The first thing I saw was a picture of my father. His face was still young in appearance as he seemed to look at the camera with an air of overconfidence while the same bright orange eyes as my own glinted with mischievousness. If I hadn't known better I probably would have thought I was staring at myself just as I had turned 14.

Flipping the picture over underneath were more pictures of my father at different ages ranging from 14 to somewhere in his early twenties. In most of them he was wearing a suit very much like the one Cuttlefish had given me as he stood next to or interacted with other Inklings about the same age as him. In one he was even seen holding a baby Zapfish proudly while others happily applauded him and a younger Cuttlefish stood behind them all with a proud look on his face.

I flipped through more of the photos until I reached near the end. Another picture with the group of agents now all adults with my dad in the front with a wide grin soon stared up at me. I looked at it for a few minutes before I turn it aside to see underneath was a picture of him with a younger version of my mom standing in front an apartment, arms wrapped each other as they stared at the camera. Their happy expressions plastered across their faces like nothing could remove them.

My vision suddenly turned blurry as I felt hot tears threatening to fall down my face as I hastily turned to the last picture, which was one of my father again like the first one but as an adult instead. The mischievousness was still there but seemed to be more hidden as he stared at the camera.

The photo was attached to a yellowed piece of paper which I started to read after a minute of staring at my father's image but once I had I started to feel a cold shiver run down my spine.

 _Name: Agent Firefly (Walter Colorian)_

 _Orange Male, opalescent inshore/? descent_

 _Living Relations: NA_

 _Living Family: May Colorian (wife)_

 _Marin Colorian (first son)_

 _Kell Colorian (second son)_

 _Active duty: August 10th 212017-May 28th 212025_

 _Born: March 3rd 212003_

 _Death: June 6th 212027; Walter Colorian was found dead on the outskirts of Inkopolis with multiple stab wounds to the back. Was pronounced dead on the scene when body was found, Octarian involvement of agent death highly probable._

"You weren't supposed to see those..."

I whipped around to find Cuttlefish standing behind me, a plate of crab cakes in his hands and a look of sorrow on his face, "Those are extremely confid-"

"You knew my dad?" he immediately fell silent as he avoided my gaze, "why didn't you tell me?"

"Walter was one of my best agents in the original Squidbeak Splatoon..." he replied as he place the plate on the desk with a sigh before sitting in a chair, "...everyone thought of him as the leader and respected him greatly since he always seemed to know how to get everyone out of a rescue mission without a single injury or loss of life."

"Then what changed?" I tried to keep my voice level but I could hear it trembling as I spoke.

"You came along...in order to protect you and your mother he retired from being an agent...unfortunately that didn't stop the Octarians from eventually finding him. As soon as word had spread of Walter's death many of the others grew concerned for their own families and thus the Squidbeak Splatoon was disbanded...I only restarted it a few years ago."

"I still don't understand..." my hands had started trembling again as I continued to hold the folder while my voice grew louder, "Why didn't you tell me my father was an agent?!"

"Your father had many secrets...some I still to this day don't know and now never will...such as why he was out there that night...but you father having his double life was one of them. Not even your mother I think knew and he had told me before he left that he didn't want to put his family in danger anymore."

"So...you didn't think I could handle it?" I could feel a warm feeling coming to my chest as I felt my anger rising with it.

"Marlin...you're only 14..."

"I'm not a child!" a tiny hint of a growl came from my throat.

"I-I never said you were!"

"Then why are you treating me like I am!? You're no better than the rest of them!"

"Marlin...please listen to me..."

"No! You're not my dad!" throwing the folder to the floor I only watched the photos and other papers fly out of it and scatter across the floor for a few seconds before I grabbed my ink tank and hero shot and ran out the door.

"Marlin!" Cuttlefish's voice cried out before I shoved my headset over my head as I continued to run across away from the shack and farther through the valley. Eventually the crackle of the headset coming on came into my ears.

"Where are you going?!"

"I'm going on a mission..." super jumping across an area I landed next to the third boss kettle that had opened earlier that day when I was collecting Zapfish.

"What?! No Agent 3 you need to rest, take time to-"

"I'm ready now!" taking a running start I jumped straight at the kettle opening. Turning into a squid at the last second as I passed through the grate and was transported through the tunnels.

Landing in another arena like the last two times I looked around the place before seeing the Zapfish in the center. Immediately I started moving towards it.

"Agent 3 return to the-"

"No Captain," I told him, cutting him off, "...I can handle this."

"But you don't know what octoweapon it is...and you are exhausted from your previous missions I'm sure."

"I'm fine..." walking up to the center I see a Zapfish dangling from the ceiling above a giant clamshell object surrounded by a pool of Octarian ink like a juicy worm hanging over a waiting fishing net, "looks like they were waiting for me..."

"Wait...what do you me-!?" static filled my ears for a second before it died to be replaced with the now familiar mysterious voice sighing as I stood at the edge of the ink pool and looked up at the now panicking Zapfish. It had started squeaking even more loudly once it had caught sight of me.

"Why must you Inklings be so persistent...?" The voice sounded bored, "your making my job difficult."

"I thought that was the idea...?" I looked around the arena to see if I could finally catch a glimpse of the voice's owner which as usual resulted in nothing, "are you interrupting Cuttlefish just to tell me that I'm ruining your plans...again?"

"My plans? Heh...I wish Inkling they were..." he seemed mildly annoyed by this before continuing, "but no...I'm here to give you your final warning."

"Are you saying the last few weren't?" I took a step forwards only to jump back as a tentacle shot up and grabbed it from the Zapfish from the empty clamshell before pulling it back in as the two halves of the shell snapped shut with a loud clang that echoed throughout the dome for several seconds before the sound of mechanical whirring overpowered it.

"Very funny Inkling...but if I were in your shoes I'd take this seriously because this is not child's play...and we will do anything in our power to take back what's ours!" the now spiky orb in front of me slowly turned around until a pair of mechanical eyes was glaring down at me as an ear splitting wail came out of it.

"What the kel-!?" before I could even pull my hero shot out the thing was already charging at me as it tried to run me over. Leaping towards the side I barely dodged it as it zipped past me and hit the barrier of the arena loudly before slowly turning around, "Captain, it's a giant mechanical clam that tries to roll me over! What do I do?!"

Only tiny amounts of static could be heard coming from the other side as I watched the octoweapon finish it's turning around and prepare to charge once more, "Captain I need advice!"

Silence was the only thing that answered me as the giant ball of death came at me. It was on me before I could get out of the way again and I felt the sting of Octarian ink and large sharp spikes piercing my skin before I blacked out.

Snapping my eyes open I let out a pained gasp as I fell to my knees on the spawn that had activated just outside the arena. Left over sensation of the spikes going into me continued to assault my body for several minutes before dying down as I finally forced myself to stand, "C-Cuttlefish...?"

Still nothing came across the headset as I watched the octoweapon which seemed to wander around aimlessly in the arena since it had already splatted me.

"How am I supposed to take it down without...?" I froze as I watched it come across one of the spots I had inked. As it went over it the huge thing temporarily sank down into the ink before pulling itself out with a mechanical groan, continuing it's wandering around as before.

"N-no way...could I...?" swimming back up and through the barrier I started waving my arms to get its attention, "Hey Octoswirl! You didn't actually get me! How about you try harder you dumb spiky ball!"

It immediately turned around and let out an angry screech as it rushed towards me from the other side of the arena.

Turning into squid form I leaped into a puddle of my ink as it went past me before jumping back out and shooting as much ink as possible onto the ground. I turned around at the sound of the octoweapon roaring at me as it seemed to debate whether it should rush me or not.

"Come and get me you lazy tin clam!" I yelled with my hands cupped around my mouth, "or are you too scared to try to take on a kid!?"

Whatever hesitation it had was completely gone as with another screech it rolled towards me at a break-neck pace. It's beady mechanical eyes never taking its gaze off me.

Just before it could roll me over again its angry screech turned into one of panic as it rolled straight into the puddle of ink in front of me and sunk into it. In its panic its tentacle launched upwards into the air as the entire thing shuddered from its efforts to free itself.

"If you want to stop me...you're gonna have to try harder than that," I softly muttered as I aimed my hero shot and started to shoot it.

The tentacle exploded with the rest following afterwards a second later spraying ink in all directions. The Zapfish crashed into the green ink while still in its light bulb tank with a loud squeak before letting out a series of whimpers as it laid there.

"Come on..." walking up to it I broke the tank and held my arms out as the Zapfish jumped into my arms, "let's get you out of here...Captain I'm on my way back."

There was still nothing as I started making my way out of the arena. For the first time since I had entered this place I was beginning to feel something else creeping into my heart as I left instead of anger.

And that feeling was fear.


	11. Love and Loss

**Chapter 11: Love and Loss**

"Cuttlefish!?" I yelled at the top of my lungs as I climbed up from the kettle and rushed over to the shack. The Zapfish clinging tightly to me as I barged through the door.

Immediately I started looking around the place but I didn't see the old Captain. The place though didn't looked much more than what it had before I ran out.

"Captain?" confused I set the Zapfish down, which curled itself around the arm of a chair before I looked around farther.

poking around the corner to his office the only sign I saw of his presence was a headset similar to my own tossed onto the desk and a plate of crab cakes that had turned cold. The papers from my father's file were even still laying across the floor as I walked over to the desk.

"Where did he go...?" I glanced down at the cold plate of crab cakes next to the headset he used to communicate with me. Clearly it was hastily thrown next to the plate like he was in a rush but normally he would have said something if it was the case.

"Maybe he did try but I couldn't hear...?" I turned to look at the Zapfish slither over before climbing up to munch on the cold food, "not that you care...you're just happy with the free food."

The Zapfish stared at me as I watched it eat before I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. Pulling it out I flicked it on to see a new message.

 _Is there anyway we can meet up later at the café? There is something I want to talk about._

 _Noi_

I stared at the screen for several minutes. Various thoughts going through my mind as I debated the possible reasons behind this message from her. Did she want to apologize for the call earlier or tell me off more about how whatever I was doing was not fair to her or the rest of the team...

...Or maybe she was giving me a chance to explain?

I took a deep breath after about a minute as I started writing back.

 _Yeah, there is something I want to tell you about too...does later tonight work?_

Another minute passed before my phone buzzed with her response.

 _Alright then...I'll be there._

Seeing her response I sat into the chair with heavy sigh before burying my face in my hands, "cod I hope I do the right thing...I love her too much to keep this a secret anymore..."

I glance over to see the Zapfish now snoozing on top of the now empty plate happily.

"Why did I even expect a response from you...?" sighing for the umpteenth time I leaned back in the chair farther as I waited for my potential doom.

* * *

"Hey Marlin."

"Hey," sliding into the chair in front of Noi I forced a smile onto my face, "glad to see you again."

"Yeah...sorry about this morning..." she said with a sigh, "I had a pretty stressful morning..."

"You did?"

"Yeah but that's not important," she waved Leef over who promptly got her a glass of water, "I just wanted to say...I'm sorry about snapping at you this morning. It wasn't appropriate and it's not really my business what you are doing in your spare time."

"Oh..." a sound caught my attention causing me to look out the window, when I looked however there wasn't anything out there to see making me turn back to her with a frown.

"Yeah...anyways...you mentioned you wanted to tell me something...?"

"Right yes I did," I took a quick glance around the café. Other than a few adult patrons on the far side and Leef there was no one around in the café this late in the afternoon. Most kids headed home before the sun started to dip below the skyline and already it was half behind it with the sky a bright orange going on red hue.

Now seemed as good as any to tell her.

I leaned closer, "but you got to promise me you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you..."

"Ugh...Marlin..." she started to groan before I cut her off with the grab of her hand with mine, causing her to stare at me confused.

"Noi I mean it...it has to be kept between us and only us."

Her head jerked back a little in shock at my comment, "Why?"

"Because if you don't...people might get hurt. Maybe even killed..."

"Wait...killed?"

"Yes killed."

Her eyes widened a little, this time confusion was crossing her face mixed with the beginning of fear, "Marlin...?"

"Don't you trust me?"

"Yes...?" She hesitated.

"Then please...you have to trust me on this..."

"Y-you must have been training too hard today," she made a move to get up, "you need rest."

"I don't need rest..." I reached over and grabbed her wrist so that she was forced to sit back down, "...and I'm not delirious."

"Marlin...you're hurting me," she tried yanking her hand free.

"Noi you asked what I've been doing and I'm going to tell you," her eyes widened more as it became more apparent how scared she was but I didn't let that stop me, "you see the thing is I know who took the great Zapfish...it was the Octarians."

She stopped trying to escape, "But...I thought they were-"

"Scary stories to get squishies to behave for their parents? Yeah me too until I met the Captain who told me everything and how if we don't stop them we will lose all of our power."

"Marlin..."

"I've fought dozens of them...I've killed dozens of them. But I've found a lot of baby zapfish."

"Marlin."

"And the Octarians have created large machines that are called great Octoweapons and-"

"Marlin!"

I stopped and froze, just like most of the patrons in the café at the sound of her shouting my name. I then simply stared as she finally yanked her hand free before scrambling out of her seat as she stared back with frightened eyes, "you...can't just go making up stories like that...there is something seriously wrong with you."

"I-I didn't make it up."

"You're lying Marlin..." she was shaking where she stood, whether from fear or anger I couldn't tell, "...and if you are gonna try to cover up your absence with...fairy tales then perhaps Whark should kick you off the team."

"Noi you have to believe me..." I could feel my heart and mind racing as I sat there but my body refused to listen to me as I looked up at her, pleading with her to listen to me as I stood rooted to my seat.

She only maintained our gaze for another few seconds before looking away, "I'm sorry Marlin...I don't think I can do that anymore."

"Noi..."

"Bye Marlin," she turned and headed out the door.

"Noi!" my body finally allowed me to move as I scrambled after the now retreating lavender colored inkling before getting stopped by Leef.

"Let her go...it never works out if you chase them."

I pushed past her and run to the door. By the time I get through it she is already around the corner and out of sight as the sun started dipping behind the buildings.

Without a second thought I ran after her but by the time I get to the corner she is long since gone. In the half light I slide by back against a wall as I buried my face in my hands, "cod dang it Marlin...why did you have to tell her?! Now she's never gonna trust you again...assuming you ever see her again," I pulled my knees close as I fought the urge to sob out loud.

A noise caused me to look up as someone in the half light started to come towards me. The shadow being cast from the building making it impossible to see who it was as I stood up, "N-Noi...?"

A giggled pierced the air which caused a shiver to run down my spine as the person stepped into view. It was a girl but instead of two long tentacles on the side of her face she had two somewhat shorter ones that curled around her face with another bigger pair in the back that curled as well. Her actual face though was covered with a mask, causing only her mouth and nose to be visible as she pointed her ink weapon at me.

"Sorry to disappoint you Inkling, or do you prefer...Agent 3?"

I only stand there for a second before darting right past her, her gasp being the only indication I had actually taken her off guard as I ran down the alley.

I only made it about 100 feet though before I was sent to the ground and then yanked backwards from my left leg. Turning myself so my face was upwards I could see a snare like object wrapped around it as the girl pulled the other end.

"You...are not...getting rid of...me that easily...Agent 3..." she panted as she fought to pull the rope like a fisherman reeling in a large fish.

As I was pulled closer I struggled to find anything to use against her but aside from a few random rocks my hand slipped past in my effort to grip anything to slow myself down nothing was presenting itself as a good weapon as she pulled me the last few feet with a final heave.

"Told...you..." even though she was once again aiming her weapon at me it was hard to take her seriously as she panted heavily in front of me. Her grip weak on the gun as she fought to get air inside herself, "told you...you aren't getting away..."

"I didn't know I had a fangirls amongst the Octarians," I said with a half laugh.

She immediately stiffened as her panting stopped and her voice started to drip with intense irritation as she spoke again, "what did you just call me...inkling?"

What smile I had managed to conjure up immediately disappeared, "u-uh..."

"Let's get one thing straight..." she raised her foot and stomped on my chest hard.

The sound of snapping cartilage and support tissue soon reached my ears as pain flooded my body, causing me to let out a half scream before I could clamp my mouth shut.

She grounded her boot into my chest harder as she leaned in, "...If you think I have even the slightest interest in you or your kind you are greatly mistaken inkling...your kind has forced us to stay buried in the ground for too long while you have had your fun in the sun...that time is over."

The intense flare of pain I was feeling was almost too much to bare as I tried to push her foot off me, my ability to breathe already becoming increasingly difficult to maintain as more cartilage in my chest snapped from within. The chilly cold air seemingly turning into burning liquid in my lungs while the rest of my body felt like it was catching on fire.

"Any last words inkling?" She snickered as I writhed underneath her like a bug being pinned like with a tack, "guess not...I'm sure big brother will be pleased to find out I defeated the "infamous" Agent 3," she let out a peal of laughter that echoed through the alley.

Her enjoyment of my suffering was cut short when she suddenly stiffened before falling over as she fell unconscious next to me. A very noticeable bruise on the back of her head.

"What the...?"

"Seems like you certainly know how to piss people off eh hotshot?"

Struggling to sit up I looked away from the passed out Octarian to my supposed rescuer. My body froze however as I saw the glint of a dynamo roller over the shoulder of the person who had saved me.

"May I also be the first to tell you that outfit looks so stupid on you," Soral added as she gave me a mischievous grin, "which I'm sure you're gonna explain to me in full detail as well as what you've been doing the last month...right?"


End file.
